Log:Resistance: Turtles With Cannons On Their Freaking Shells

Resistance: Turtles With Cannons On Their Freaking Shells

OOC Date: July 14, 2018
Location: Over Pakaedus in the Paka Zuul system
Participants: Sar Yavok, David Ironside, Gren Delede, The Resistance

It's been a rough couple of days for the plucky heroes of the Resistance, but they came through (largely) unscathed. Bloody but unbowed, if you will. But you don't get a lot of rest when you're in the middle of a galaxy-wide Civil War, so Resistance High Command has dispatched a handful of the Res's best fighter pilots to the backwater planet of Pakaedus. Woefully unremarkable; it's a mining planet populated by hard workers who gamble away their credits inside the casino-city that serves as the beating heart of the planet.

<<Captain Yavok to all, disengaging hyper in five, four, three, two, one...disengaging.>> The levers are slid back and Green Leader drops back into realspace. <<Ladies, this is the Paka Zuul system. You ever wanted to see a place where nothin's ever happened; this is the one for you. Planetary governor got in touch with your bosses a few hours ago, said they're dealing with some pirates. Raiding ore shipments, gunnin' down local resistors, that sorta thing.>> Green Leader throttles up slowly. <<Keep your eyes open. Call contacts as you see them.>>

On the left, behind Green Leader, is a T-85 X-Wing. One of two in the Resistance fleet, this one identified as Gold Leader both by the colors and the R2 astromech droid behind the cockpit. Inside the cockpit, David Ironside sits, wearing his signature golden yellow flightsuit. <<Roger that, Green Leader.>> he replies to the operation's lead. <<They say what we'd be dealing with, technology- wise?>> He taps his rear viewport without looking. "Start those scans, Ones." he tells the droid, looking out at.. well.. nothing interesting so far himself.

<<A handful of Headhunters is all we know for sure. Their planet-side defenses are beefed up, but the mining council doesn't have much set up as far as air support goes. There's rumors of a cappie, but it hasn't been seen in-system for a while,>> Sar remarks, eyes still on the scanners as the Res ships draw closer to the planet.

<<Copy.>> David says, not wasting any time on aimless chatter. <<Let's hope it stays that way.>> David glances around, scanners not picking anything up. Headhunters shouldn't be much of a problem for this top of the shelf fighter, and David isn't worried about a handful for sure.

<<Agreed,>> Sar comms back. Rex whistles away behind him for a few moments before the binary translation blips onto Sar's screen. "Good eye, Rexy." Sar opens the channel. <<Alright, Gold Leader, R3's just picked up some radio traffic planetside. Looks like our pirates are tailing a YT-1210. Light those burners,>> he comms before sliding the throttle up and putting his bomb truck into full burn.

<<Copy, Green Leader.>> David's free hand flicks a switch, separating the wings of his craft into the signature X shape. He pushes the throttle forward, and feels the push of the G-forces as the ship accelerates. <<On your wing, Green Leader.>> he calls, keeping behind the Y-Wing. He could easily overtake it, but going solo on a run like this is a terrible idea.

The jump was close enough to the planet that reaching atmo doesn't take too long. The last bit of flame flickering against the Y-Wings nose dissipate and afterburners are engaged. <<Eyes up, Gold Leader. Z-95s at three o'clock,>> Sar instructs.

But the Res fighters have also been noticed. The Headhunters break off of their pursuit and about -face, heading straight on for the SFC pilots. There are five in total. Likely a cake-walk for the intrepid aviators.

The lead Z-95 squeezes off a burst that catches Captain Yavok by surprise, but is luckily swallowed up by the Y-Wing's heavy shielding. Green Leader's forward lasers bark awake in response, sending hot plasma straight into the cockpit of its assailant.

<< I see 'em, Green Leader. >> David breaks formation a bit when the lasers come in, doing a barrel roll as he returns fire. The blasts dig into a Z-95, causing small explosions as the shields are immediately shredded open. <<That's a hit, Green Leader.>> he reports as he passes by the enemy squadron, making for a passing run in pursuit.

High Command received a distress call from the system of Paka Zuul; specifically the mining/casino planet of Pakaedus. Green Leader, Gold Leader and a select few other pilots have been dispatched to take down a band of pirates. So far, so good, as they're only having to deal with a few Headhunters. For now.

<<Copy, Gold Leader. Going in for another attack run,>> Sar comms, jamming his throttle back and engaging manuevering thrusters to whip the big butt of the Y-Wing around. The throttle is slapped forward once more and the armored Y-Wings cannons blast away. One Z-95 explodes outright while its wingman's shields cave under the weight of the fusillade.

David copies, once again. He ends up, by complete coincidence, behind the shieldless Z-95 he engaged first. Squeezing the trigger, the four tips of the X-Wing shred apart the rear of the fleeing snubfighter, causing the engines to flicker and finally die, before a fire spreads out from within, causing an explosion to rip the craft in half. <<Scratch one, Green Leader.>> the LT reports.

A blue and white E-wing exits hyperspace near the dogfight, having apparently also received the distress signal, or he just decided to join up, having left late. The nimble heavy escort fighter corkscrews through Z-95 laser fire, and pulls a hard burning turn to port. His triple heavy blaster cannons fire two salvos, catching one of the Headhunters with a pair of grazing blasts that eat away at the old fighter's shields.

<<Hope you don't mind if I join you. I bloody needed to get off that ship.>> His transponder is pointedly turned off, indicating that he apparently is not here as Renegade Leader. He's just going to have fun hunting.

<<Welcome aboard, Renegade Leader,>> Sar comms to the new arrival, dipping the Y-Wing out of the way of an incoming burst. Checking over his shoulder for the target, Sar decides to leave that one to someone else as he chases down the other remaining fighter. He looses another flurry of bolts and his target goes up in smoke. <<Scratch three.>>

David grins. "See, Ones? Easy." He passes through the remains of his last target, bumping the harmless debris out of the way as he fixes on another Z-95. The last one, apparently. "Ready the turret, Ones." David speeds up, matching speed with the Z-95 when he reaches it. The blaster cannon drops out of the X-Wing's right wing, turning to the Z-95 at David's handling. Then it lets loose with a hail of fire, cracking immediately through the already wounded Headhunter's transparisteel canopy, wrecking the control panel in the process. Going down, it doesn't explode just yet, but without controls it's not going anywhere anytime soon either.

<< I should've stayed home. You people are too effecient. >> Gren's voice crackles over the comms, sounding bemused. He doesn't throttle down much, though. He does corkscrew around, and settle onto Sar Yavok's wing. Well. He actually has to throttle down quite a lot.

<<Alright, well, looks like that's the end of it. We'll send the council a bill. Burners on, let's get out of here,>> Sar comms to the rest of the flight group before pulling the nose up and rocketing on an escape vector.

Breaking out of atmo, the flight group begins their calculations for a quick and easy escape. Another Y-Wing from Green Squadron lines up on the outside of the formation, piloted by Mr. Josno Barrat himself. <<Thanks for letting me tag along on this one, Captain. I feel like I really learned a lo->>

Before the Cadet can finish his statement, though, a GR-75 is warping into system. Obviously, when calculations were made, Josno was not within spitting distance, but mere moments after the GR-75 appears, the young pilot screams across the channel; his Y-Wing obliterated against the hull of the capital ship. To make matters worse? A second GR-75 warps in alongside.

These cappies have seen expensive modifications. They're 'murdered out' as it were; several turbolaser emplacements along their hulls, reinforced titanium armor, and modded shields.

The sudden appearance of.. basically turtles with cannons strapped to their backs has David pulling the throttle back. <<Green Leader, do we engage?>> He shakes his head briefly at the sudden loss of a cadet, and worse, a Y-Wing. <<Be fair, they've already engaged us.>> he refers to the pilot's untimely death. <<But we're three fighters against two of those transports. Your call.>>

<<The least bloody threatening ships in the galaxy just killed one of us. Of -course- we bloody engage.>> Gren's voice growls over the comms, and then throws his starfighter into a roll, and peels away from the slower Y-wing. The sturdy little E-wing weaves and slaloms through the turbolaser batteries that open up on the Resistance snubfighters. He walks heavy laser cannon fire up the closest GR75's spine, punching away at it's shields...but doing no real damage.

<<They brought us out here to deal with pirates. Not just their fighters. Light 'em up!>> Sar orders , pulling up and away from the cappies. Y-Wings aren't built for close quarters, you see. It shows, too, as Green Leader just barely dips and ducks out of the way of the turbolaser bolts. Re-orienting himself, the bomber begins diving back toward the GR-75 and lets loose a duo of torpedoes. Both of them rocking the big ship's shields.

"Prepare the torpedos, Ones." David orders of his droid as he focuses on dodging the hail of turbolaser fire. "Lock onto that spot under the bridge and hold for my say-so." The droid replies in quick beeps and a whistle, prepping a pair of proton torpedos for launch. The fighter weaves inbetween the two transports, popping up suddenly to deliver its payload, as two purple-streaked torpedos fly directly towards the indicated spot, a relatively small turbolift area between the main body of the ship and the bridge. A pair of massive explosions are telling, as the fire doesn't dissipate after impact. <<Shields are down on the first transport, Green Leader.>>

Delede hauls Renegade Leader around for another pass on the shieldless, and damaged GR-75. Turbolasers from both ships whip past his cockpit, but don't particularly have a chance at hitting the the weaving fighter. Gren punches a button on his console, and down swings the targeting computer. He doesn't use the old standby often, but for this run...let's go for it. The E-wing's nose settles, and it burns in a straight flight. <<Haven't killed one of these in ages..>> A deep breath is taken, as he uses one eye to look down the targeting screen. He pulls his trigger, and then streaks up and away. A pair of torpedos jet out, and impact the hole that Dave created with his last salvo. The warheads detonate deep within the upgraded freighter's hull. Bright white light, and a rapidly expanding cloud of shrapnel indicate a reactor that just went critical.

The first GR-75 is taking a helluva beating from the Resistance pilots. Clearly, they didn't know the +sheets they were going up against. Once Delede torpedoes the reactor; it's over. The ship begins ripping itself to pieces. <<Yavok to all, keep the fire on 'em. We're almost out of here!>> he comms, whipping past a chunk of the first 75. As he pops out on the other side of the wreckage, Green Leader gets lit up by a turbolaser barrage. <<I'm hit. Shields are down. Repeat; shields are down.>> Looking over his shoulder, he barks, "Get them back on-line, Rex! Now!" Turning back, he fires another duo of torpedoes. The first goes wide, but the second one impacts the shields head-on.

When the first transport goes down, David pumps his fist at his side. It quickly goes back to assist in the piloting, the stick moving left and right, up and down to move the fighter around the GR-75 like a Mon Calamari water ballet. "Prepare for a repeat performance, Ones." Dave tells the astromech behind him. The fighter, free from having to maneuver around a second transport he manages to let off the exact same shot, in more or less the same area. The explosion doesn't stick to the transport, though. <<Gold Leader, reporting no visible damage.>>

Gren's E-wing continues to bear down on the second GR75, and while he's focused on the targeting computer....he's not juking nearly enough. A turbolaser catches the starfighter on the s-foil, and burns through the shields. It sends the fighter rolling hard, and sparks fill the cockpit. Delede shoves the targeting computer arm out of his face. "I always hated those bastards." <<Aye. I've got minor damage, myself.>> He doesn't break off the E-wing's attack run, though. Both torpedos slam into the transport's unshielded hull, and punch gaping holes in it's extra armoured...but still somewhat weak plating. A few crewman can be seen briefly, as they are pulled out into space. <<It's on its last legs.>>

<<Copy that, Renegade Leader,>> Sar says, settling back into his seat and lining up for another attack run. Rexy beeps away in the astromech slot about this being a bad idea. He his flying a shieldless wishbone full of explosives, after all. Whatever.

<<Torpedoes away,>> he comms to the rest of the flight group, two purple discoballs whipping their way toward the GR-75. They close in and dip down into the breached hull, detonating within the ship's magazine. A few small explosions can be seen from outside of the ship as it's transparasteel windows shatter outward, but then; the whole capital ship explodes in a shower of fire and twisted steel.

<<Coming around for another ru- oh. Well then.>> Dave comms as he watches the capital ship get destroyed. "Guess I'm not doing that." <<Forming up on your wing, Green Leader. This is one of those casino planets, right? You bring any credits?>> The chatter is there now, as the seemingly final threat is extinguished quite efficiently.

<<Nice work, but stow the chatter. You just lot a bloody comrade. Act like it.>> The anger is evident in Delede's voice, over the comm. <<Bloody arsehole.>> Renegade Leader hauls around, and heads for the gravity well. "Keep your eye peeled for any more targets, Bait. And remind me to assign that arse to a few months of early morning maintenance reviews with the deck crew."

<<No>> Sar comms back. He sucks his teeth and looks over to where young Josno bit it. <<We need to get back to base. We got somebody to drink to. And I've got a letter to send.>> He sighs softly and points his nose, and the flight group, toward the initial jump vector. <<Jumping to lightspeed in five, four, three, two, one...engaged,>> With that, Green Leader's pink engines disappear into a pair of long beams of light before blinking out of existence entirely.