Log:Resistance: Under the Table
Resistance: Under the Table
OOC Date: May 2, 2020
Location: Tion Cluster
Participants: The Resistance, Ektor, Zorii Bliss, Barad, Jax Greystorm, Lofty, Elrych Cometburn, Merek, Poe Dameron
The Tionese had a long and.. complicated history with the Hutts. It was complicated by many things, including millenia of war, oppression, genocide, and at least two collapsed human civilizations that had left the Tion Cluster a galactic afterthought for the last several thousand years.
While the major Hutt clans were content to harvest wealthier (and more cooperative) systems, at least one minor player had muscled in on Tion Prime. Sitting astride the largest hyperspace lane with the bulbous, grotesque Huttship *Kossak's Return* and squadrons of subject fighters, the Hutts extorted credits from incoming freighters, or demanded their cargo outright, claiming them to be contraband. The vault ship *Grand Doogora* floated nearby to hold the choicest pieces of plunder.
The racket has been underway for several days, and it looked relatively profitable. After all, there was no standing navy for light-years, and the Tionese were well known to be a fractious race of petty pirates, and small time scoundrels.
But even pirates have friends.
The plan was simple, direct, and violent: every fighting ship they could scrape together would meet up outside of sensor range, microjump in together, and start shooting. <<Arright, here's the deal: first up, we knock out the vault ship's shields, ionize that bastard, and set the table for the Slingshot. Dogface, you just deliver your cargo and let that boat fulla violent gentlemen do their thing, yeah? Everybody else, hit what you want. They gonna have plenty of birds in the black, all you can eat. We gonna steal their drek, kick em in the spawning sack and see if they run before they blow up. Jumping in three.. two.. and jump.>>
The Ghost's golden impulse engines come to life just as its shields shimmer into existence. <<"Ghost copies. We're training all guns on the vault ship, then we'll pick up secondaries from there.">> Poe says over the encrypted line before reaching over to flip the switch. This 'switch' was for internal comms. "You hear that, Jess?" Poe calls back to their tailgunner.
"I have ears of my own, Poe. I know what we're shooting at." She answers back dryly, spooling up the pair of heavy double cannons on the back. That left the ion cannons, and the pair of heavy doubles on the front.
Poe chances a glance at Zorii then takes the controls. "It's different not seeing you in your Y-Wing." Jess, overhearing this, rolls her eyes thankful she's separated from the two at the helm.
Zorii Bliss is sitting in the cockpit of the Ghost's copilot seat, bronzium helmet moving side to side doing second checks on weapon readouts as if the pilot beside her, Poe Dameron, hadn't already gone through them once himself.. Certainly his evalution cannot be trusted, right?
Right.
The smuggler Queen thumbs up to him after the board checks green and speaks in a gently distorted voice through the voice modulator on the back of her helmet, "It's different not seeing you sweating into a flight suit." Zorii answers to Poe beside her, half grinning behind her black shield.
"Let's hope your fancy ship packs as big a punch as mine, huh?"
Lofty the Talz is at the helm of his squat and battered 'skipray' blastboat. His trusty Sullustan navigator, Haozipliirs Stebbs, is in the gunner compartment running the laser turret and the sensors. "<<Roger, this Snowball, jumping.>>" Upon hearing the briefing Stebbs chitters in Sullustese, "<<Nimakumuhura, ny nydroona.>>" It loosely translates to 'I see, we will beat them up.' The blastboat zips in and out of realspace with a sudden jolt.
The Painted Guardian jumps into the system with the rest of Ektor's merry band. Exine was jacked into a console behid Jax in the cockpit. The droid beeps and and whirles at Jax. Jax doesn't look over his shoulder, "What do you mean you can't see cause of my head? Aren't you hooked into the ships sensors? I wish I had brought a gunner" THe Helix Interceptor engine's flare to life and starts to angle towards the Vault ship. <Painted Guardian hears you! Pursuing an attack angle for torpedoes.> He shakes his head, "What do you mean it's just not the same?"
Elrych enters into realspace, flying his t65. "Ant nothing more smelly than a tion.... except a hut."
Barad nods inside the confines of his spacer's helm, which is a slightly awkward sort of way to do it on two fronts. Firstly, the helmet does kind of smush his big 'ole floopy ears only the side of his head a bit. And secondly, in Space, no one can hear you nodding. Fixing the second issue is easy, as Barad flickers the engines in the "Acknowledged, we're a 'go'!" Signal. And, as for the helmet? Well, that will no doubt get itself sorted out in time, as with all things Space - related . . . .
The ugly silhouette of the Huttship loomed ahead, leading Zappa to observe, <<Ugh, how come every Hutt ship looks like a giant space turd? It looks almost as bad as a Corellian.>> The quip earns a few snickers over the pirate comms. Ektor is among them, before he adds, << I got.. eight fighters already up- mix of Dunelizards, Kimos, and Scyks. Scykses? Drek, what's the plural of Scyk? Forget it, more fighters launching, now. Let's rekk em up rough.>>
As described, immediately upon the arrival of unknown gunships in the Tion System, more fighters begin to trickle out of the lumpy Huttship, which broadcasts an order in Huttese for all incoming ships to stand down and submit.
"Ha! I don't /sweat/ into a flightsuit. You're one to talk in that.. body.. glove.. thing.. hold on." Poe reaches forward with a hand, gripping the lever that sends the Ghost into a sudden micro-jump, per their plan. The engines growl, the ship shakes, and the Ghost zips into hyperspace for a second before Poe shoves the lever forward and they emerge in a bright flash of blue and golden contrails. Impulse engines come to life immediately and Poe places one hand on the flight controls while his other is on a panel of various switches.
The VCX-100 begins a slow spiral as it dives toward the Vault ship Poe has marked on their internal HUD as the primary objective.
From the outside, the large light-freighter begins to open up. First from the front, a mixture of blue and red lances that impact the shields harshly. When Poe angles the ship away, Jess hammers it from the stern. "Another pass like that, Poe, and those shields are gonna be history!" Jess shares in a measured tone. "That enough punch for you, Bliss?" Poe asks, glancing her way, a charming grin on his face.
Now we're in the thick of it!
Zorii settles into her seat after strapping in and grips the controls for the double heavies, twisting in the impact chair as the barrels angle off Poe's approach after they make their micro-jump, "Don't act like you're not /looking/ at my body glove, Poe Dameron." said matter of factly without glancing over in his direction as they make their pass on the vault ship.
The heavy lasers buck, barking out bright beams of red towards the shielded objective lit up on her internal HUD, smirking behind her own black visor at the pilot beside her without actually looking over. "You always did love your toys, didn't you.. stop trying charm me out of my shields and shoot that ship out of its, eh?" Notably more loose than usual in her distorted tone.. "Nice shooting, Jess!" Just to add salt.
Lofty follows at port flight position of the GHOST. "<< Starting attack run!>>" he warbles through his snoot, depressing the flight yoke's firing studs and blasting away with triple ion cannons. One connects and damages the shields. Stebbs on the Senko Systems 5000 x2 "Tru-Lok laser turret announces "<<Waru inyanya ndungu! Mwaki!>>" which translates to 'eight fat potatoes on sensors, fire'. The Sullustan fires but hits nothing but space.
Jax seeing the Ghost and Lofty's Skipray pelt the Vault ship. He toggles from torpedoes to his heavy canons, "Can't believe I'm saying this, torpedoes might do too much damage for what ever Ektor's got planned." Then lining up a shot he fires his heavy canons at the Vault ship. Then pulls up and off the run, he looks to his right. The nimble Helix dancing away more like a fighter than a freighter. Exine wobbles and complains to him, "Yeah I'm pretty sure that Dunelizard pilot just gave us a rude gesture. Wait I thought you said you couldn't see?"
Thunderbolt 3 glides along with the others, s-foils locking into attack position and shields shimmers alive. <<"On the vault...">> Elrych announces over comms, turning just slightly to come about on the Hutt ship. Getting a green tone, he fires, watching the shield collapse from his fire. <<"Shields down, blast it with Ions!">> Now it was time to do some real hunting. The force flows through him.
Barad keys up the wide-beam comms, and replies to the lumpy Huttship's broadcasted order in Huttese for all incoming ships to stand down and submit . . . Most specifically, and most significantly, Barad replies in -perfect- Klatooine -accented Huttese (Klatooinians being a slave/client species of the Hutts for oh, only, the last 25,000 years): "By the fat tail of the paddy frog, what on -earth- are you doing firing at -us-? You already -earned- this cargo. It's -already- yours! Here, take it!" Barad grins as he cuts to static. All of that is even true. From . . . a certain point of view. Meanwhile, down in the hold, a number of very angry individuals start making angry noises. Bodes ill for the Hutts! At least -- one hopes . . .
Merek was waiting to assist from hyperspace, then he comes to the fight. While he does, the weapons open up fire on a Kimogila and begins to work on evading the next volley, although they manage to disable the ship with cannons.
Poe puts the Ghost into a slow spin, red lances from two pursuing fighters flashing by the canopy. "I am /not/ looking at your body glove. I'm looking.. at your.." Poe's sentence breaks up as he reaches for the lever controlling their impulse speed, increasing it with an audible difference in their rear engine output. It saps so much energy from the countless illegal mods that the lights in the cockpit begin to flicker. "..shape." He says finally.
In the time it's taken him to say this and put the Ghost through the motions, their squadron has conquered the vault ship. Poe marks the secondary target now, the larger cruiser which he settles their sights on after slapping several buttons down to silence the proximity alarms.
"Your shields?! Your shields are impenetrable, Zorii. I was just trying to make you smile, but I can never tell. Your helmet always has the same.." Poe lifts his hand to gesture around his own face, glancing over. "..look."
"Thanks, Zorii!" Jess sounds off from the back, a smile clearly coloring her tone.
"Lining up a new shot here, ladies. Get ready!" Again, the Ghost spearheads the first series of shield blitzing impacts before twisting slowly off its starboard to come about for another pass. Poe increases the speed again, putting him back against his seat.
"My..." Zorii jerks against the harnass holding her into the control seat for the massive swiveling heavy cannons fixed to the under/over side of the Ghost, snaking around as the heavily modified ship goes into a spinning evasive manuever away from the twin lasers lancing out across the canopy overhead. She barely even registers they're being shot at, she's that much trust in Poe's piloting.
She's also deliberately drawing out the pause between words.
"...Shape?"
The under mounted heavy lasers cut around to burst bright womping lasers against the aft facing shields on the Cruiser as they pass over it. "I thought you were smooth, Poe Dameron? Where's that winning charm? Where's that... je ne sais quoi..." Daring to lift her hand off the controls to wave in his direction.
At the increase in speed, she bucks backwards against her own seat, internal lights of her helmet flicking on and off as power fluctuations termporarily bathes the cockpit in darkness except the glow of board lights and runners. "Nothing in this galaxy makes me smile like watching you fish for words.. Nothing."
Lofty abandons his attack run on the capital ship as pirate fighters pelt his gunboat. "<<Engage fighter!>>" he announces, his white paws pulling back on the flight yoke to position his fast-but-less-maneuverable boat behind the turning Kimogila fighter that just strafed him. Stebbs replies in Sullustse, "<<Ageni eri matiri utugire,>>" which is a Sullustan proverb that means 'there is no welcome for two guests who arrive at the same time.' SHOOOM SHOOOM SHOOOM go the triple ion cannons. BRAP BRAP BRAP goes the dorsal laser turret. Meanwhile, the R2 unit in the weapons compartment plugs its scomp link into the main drive, attempting to restore shielding despite the blastboat's overtaxed power core.
Exine beeps at Jax and it's urgent, "WHat's that about Thunderbolt 2? I like that fighter. It won me third when I was racing a whole bunch of interceptors." Jax says arcing his ship into a loop and hits the the rudder to complete the twist. "I see him on my scopes. Paint one of the Kimogilias." The R2 unit bring up the heavy fighter. Jax mumbles, "Good thing I know some manuevers." Then he turns lazily to the left as he targets the heavy Mandomotors ship. Then pulling a trigger on his heavy cannons the ship evaporates into space dust, <Cleared one off you, Thunderbolt 2.>
Elrych pulls hard on the stick, bringing the X-wing around in a hard turn. Eggsy, his R2 unit in the droid socket behind the cockpit, beeps at him a worried whistle. "He what?" The Jedi checks the sensors and confirms Merek's perdicament. <<"I'm coming to cover you thunderbolt 2. Get that drek repaired and get out of here before you blow up my fighter.">> He didn't mean to sound upset or worried, but the tone was terse and seconds counted if the ship and crew were to survive. It wasn't just Merek on that thing. He angles in on the attacking Kimoogila, lining up a shot, and blasting it to pieces. All four scarlet bolts rip through the shields and hit the engines, causing a chain rection. <<"Splash one, Thunderbolt 2.3">>
Barad keeps the bulk of the lootship between the cargo container full of angry angry pirates and the big angry guns of the big angry Huttship. All in all, there's a lot of hate sizzling through the local subspace, in all the usual colors and shades of red and green and whatnot. Barad is still not participating. He keeps up his stream of profanity-laced protestations in perfect Huttese, not firing at anyone. Just intent on staying alive long enough to 'deliver the goods. . . .' Somewhere, someone is calmly urging him to: "Stay on target . . . . Staaay on Target!" Which he does! And after absorbing a rocking hit, the "Second Chance" delivers the goods.
Merek waits with a nod, while he speaks to the comlink, <"Repairing the hyperdrive. I am going to travel a little quiet."> He will wait while he begins repairing the system with the Gadget droid, taking the time to wait. When it looks like it is repaired, <"Alright, I am preparing the hyperdrive, I will be extracting from the fight."> The Sergeant begins to pull on the switches while the hyperdrive charges up.
The Ghost rocks from the impact and Zorii grimaces behind her shield as the shimmer of illuminates outside the foreward viewport, "The word you're looking for is distracted." She adds helpfully after he's demand they not team up on him. Turning the controls to swivel the massive double guns that buzz harmlessly away from the cruiser, which in her defense, is definitely Poe's fault...
Somehow.
"Since you were fishing for words." Added for emphasis, distinct humor in her voice. Banter in battle is fundamental, right? It is in the Ghost. "Babu! Get your small butt back there and help Beebee, huh? Aki uh'ta, Babu Bae Bae.."
The tiny Droid engineer darts out from beneath the piloting console, waving a hydro-spanner over his head like a spear, "AKIMA BABU! B'ku Beeeeeee!" Chasing after BB-8 as if the spherical droid stole something!
"Uh oh... I'm sure he didn't mean that."
Lofty keeps up the chase on that Kimogila, rolling and juking through two pirate fighters that are passing perpendicular to his line of attack. Their shots miss, but his gunboat's ion cannons implode his target's shield with a bright blue SHOOOM SHOOOM SHOOOM. Stebbs tracks the same target, firing the Senko Systems 5000 x2 "Tru-Lok laser turret and blasting off part of the pirate Kimogila's fuselage. "<<RINGA!>>" A hit.
"I see them. I see them!" Jax yells at Exine, "You don't have to yell. They didn't hit us." Jax says bring his fighter up through a series of turns to come around firing at the rude Kimogila pilot. The enemy fighter explodes. <Thunderbolts, hows 2 doing? We're getting a target rich environment out htere.>
Elrych banks steeply as he comes around in the wake of the primary Kimos destruction. He is chasing asfter the other Kimo that put Thunderbolt 2 out of the fight. Retical flixkers green for a breif moment. He fires, reflexes tuned and quick with the power of the forxe. A single bolt hits. He continues tue chase, glancing towards his sensors now and agai. Ever present with a battoe picture. Music blares in his cockpit, reflecting the intensity of the battle.
Now, "Doctors without Borders" is a perfectly fine organization. Erm. -Will-be- a perfectly fine organization. A long long time from now. In a Galaxy far far away. However: As definitive proof that "Doctors -with- Boarders" are superior, in a pinch, to "Doctors without Borders," Barad sets the howling piratical contingent comprising three Twi'leks, three Humans, and a Rodian loose aboard the ionized Hutt "Lootship" and joins on into the mayhem that ensues.
Merek keeps working with the ship while the gunners begin with a little repair work. The Sergeant keeps the ship within space, not making to maneuver it, so that enemies will not give it a lot of thought.
An impressive volley of torpedoes and concussion missiles streak out from the Tionese squadron, combining with the assault of their allies to bring the Huttship's shields to the brink of collapse. The ponderous heavy cruiser continues lashing out in vain with its turbolasers as the vessel vectors slowly toward a hyperspace escape route. Its attendant fighters find some success, landing hits on the pirates, but taking worse damage in turn. An R41 is struck, a young man's voice crying out, << I'm hit! Shields gone- I can't shake him!>> A woman's voice curses, <<Damnit, Ek-shiik.. Xer, I shot my load on that bastard, gonna peel off and bail out the kid.>>
<<Do it, yeah?>> Ektor mutters back, guiding his bomber through a series of jukes and maneuvers that thoroughly confound his pursuers without losing his torpedo lock. "Come on... We ain't got much time left."
Poe grows quiet listening to the comms and watching the battle unfold. The 'kid', Ek-Shiik, is taking a beating and Poe can't let this sortie be his last. The silence from Poe grows pregnant as he leans forward. Zorii knew the look on his face.
A hand goes along the console, flipping a series of switches, and the Ghost takes a sudden direction. Without announcing his intent, Poe pilots the Ghost on an intercept course and begins to open up smashing a dunelizard out of its pursuit, and passing it by to put the Ghost between Ek-Shiik's stern and the remaining fighter. That fighter realized that chasing the Ghost as a bad call when the Spectre's heavy double cannons locked on and Jess smirked, lighting the other lizard up!
<<"Tion, it's Ghost. I got the kid, you rekk that cruiser up, pal.">>-- <<"Go on, kid. Jump outta here while you're covered.">> Poe's tone isn't demeaning, it's hopeful. They need not lose another pilot, especially a young one. <<"Hey Zap.. now's your chance. Steal that cruiser from me, beautiful..">> Poe smirks, lining the Ghost up with the cruiser. A glance to Zorii, a nod, and he looks ahead, shoving the impulse speed to its max. Look out, here comes Zorii Bliss!
Zorii doesn't try to force words out of the concentrating Poe Dameron because... yes.. she does know that look. She knows that it almost always means they're about to go get into trouble and/or do something unquestionably heroic. Something that she is, by her own affirmation, allergic to despite her resent track record of doing very heroic things.
The Ghost dives, dips, dodges, and... dives.. towards the Pirates, but Zorii Bliss is lining up her shots, expertly moving the twisting heavy lasers with a jerk of her wrist until a split second in time where the twisting ship brings the escaping cruiser into view along the starboard viewport. "Helllooo..."
She's in a zone.
Using those seconds, an eclipse of time, to blaze hot fire along the unshielded boradside of the cruiser. Lighting up armor plating with glowing durosteel pock-marks. "Always out here being a hero... if you weren't so damned good at it, I'd swear you were suicidal..."
"You repair it?" Jax yells out to his droid the he goes on evasive manuvers as he tries to fly and dodge. He brings the fighter around trying to dodge any future hits and is for the most part staying out of the fire but that Scyk pilot is good enough to give Jax a hard time. Jax draws a beed pulling the triggerer and killing it. "I'm trying to be as still as possible. It's not my fault it's too hard to repair in the engine
Elrych was locked into a dance with the slow fat Kimogila and its wity pilot. A quartet of laser canon bolts skim just past the shield bubble of the heavy fighter, drawing a bit of annoynace from the Jedi in his set of Void armor. Bongos play repidly over he speakers, "Ohhh. ho-ho, you really are a Huttsucker ant ya..." He looks towards the sensors, Eggsy reporting the cruiser's engines offline. <<"Hit 'em hard now! Send them limping hard back to Nar Shaddaa!">>
Barad mourns as the sparky - crackling ball of electro - zot rolls down the corridor in his wake, fully indicative of the fact of the conversion of his erstwhile 'perfectly good (-ish) space ship' into an ionized 'darkened paperweight -ish space potato.' Grrrrrrrr. Sure, it was a cheap ultralight FTE. A ship he bought used. Not 2nd hand, but '3rd hand,' even. But, don't laugh -- at least it was paid for. And, Barad mourns, "It was all he had!" Barad pauses, mid - remonstrance. Tsk tsk tsk. And Tsk again. He's not been thinking _like_ _a_ _Pirate_. Barad gathers inspiration from the rampaging gang of Tions he's now leading throughout the bowels of the Lootship and amends his heretofore non - Pirate -ical ways. Sure, they -had- a ship. And then it got shot. But. Now: They have: A Bigger Ship. Because: _Pirate_! Barad attempts to get into the spirit of things. A gruffish "Yarrrr..." may even be uttered. Perchance, or perforce, they'll soon have _this_ ship . . . So Barad gets busy with making that happen . . . . .
<"Alright, looks like all systems are check, entering hyperspace."> Merek then begins to extract from combat while the blue engines begin to shimmer, with the ship beginning to enter into the path away from the fight.
Ektor answers Poe with a drawled, <<Thanks, pal. Torpedoes away- HIT EM WITH EVERYTHING.>> For her part, Zappa's bared teeth are audible in her voice: << I owe you one, Pretty Boy. Torpedoes away!>> Another voice babbles in Sullustan, echomg the same. Not all among the onslaught detonate on the scarred hull of the lumpy cruiser, but enough do that systems start to fail. The glowing engines go dark, and the ship goes still and drifting in the void.
The subject fighters- though still heavily outnumbering their attackers, have seen enough and lost enough: most flee into hyperspace, but one Scyk is bold enough to power down weapons and signal surrender.
Poe was as locked on as Zorii Bliss. The pair growing quiet as their canopy lit up with all the fire power they poured into the big cruiser. Poe's mouth formed a thin line. That was until they passed it over, following along the large ships exterior hull and blazing by its bridge. In their wake, Jessika Pava is lighting the ship up with her cannons, laughing as the view she has is comprised of the cruiser spinning because Poe has set the Ghost into a spiral motion.
<<"You don't owe me anything, Zap. As I recall, you did the same for me once.">> Poe glances over at Zorii, holding up a fist for a moment. With everything coming together at the end there, Poe seemed a lot more relieved. He even slumped back in his chair and chuckled.
Zorii releases a breath, one she was holding even if she weren't aware that she was. The cruiser is passing behind them now, back into Jessika's death sights, and the smuggler Queen is settling into the seat against har harnass... bringing her sit up to knock knuckles against Poe's. She retracts her hand with fingers wiggling, "Buh-lululu.."
The hand comes all the way to her helmet, taps a button on the side to retract the black shield so that he can see a smirk form on her face. "Fancy flying. Clearly you've been practicing." As if he weren't always the best pilot she knows or something, right? "Still..." Tracing her palm across the consoles, "Not as much firepower as the Flyer..."
She knows where to insert the knife. The Hutt fighters bug out and the heroes all gang up on the Capital Ship. "Well that's one way to find yourself free from a hutt." Jax says as he does his part of shooting the the thing up.
<<"Haha, they're bailing!">> Elrych announces over the comms, his music blaring in the background. At least it was catchy. He doesn't chase after the Kimogila as in angles to escape, letting those who flee do so. However, he Huttship dead in space? He turns his T-65 on an intercept course for the heavy cruiser. Once the retical is green and just as Eggsy announces shields are back to full, he lets a volly of crimson death rip into the hull in a quick strafing run. Then, circling around, he does a flyby of the surrendering craft. <<"One of you bigger boats want to come pick up this huttsucker? I think he wants to talk.">> The Jedi takes a deep breath, easing back in the pilots seat and slowing the craft down to a nice cruising speed. He shuffles the playlist, sounding something smoother and more relaxing. S-foils close and subsystem checks start as Eggsy calculated the trip back home. Another mission on (or off) the books.
Barad finishes up with the running around and the liberating and the screaming of the "Yarrrrrr!" Quite exhilarating, that last bit. Good times. Nothing like a good honest "Yarrr!" to get the blood moving and keep the motivation levels high. Barad makes a mental note to do more of this sort of thing, more often. Especially if it helps out "The Little Guy" who's getting exploited by "The Big Guys." And, double - especially since the Hutts do tend to play "The Big Guys" often. Might be in their genetics, dunno. But in the Meanwhile: Barad puts his fluency in Huttese to work, reading off the crates and manifests so that his crew can sort what's what.
The vast majority of the Hutt subject fighters have streaked into hyperspace, leaving only debris, escape pods, and whoever was stupid, brave, or stupidly brace enough to surrender to a gang of Tionese pirates after fighting for a Hutt. <<Yeah, we'll bring em in. Can always just shoot em, after, if it's some trick or something, yeah? >> Ektor responds to Elrych. The announcement is made shortly after: <<Beach party on Dellalt to celebrate- Jess, you hear that, yeah? Beach... Party. More booze than the biggest drunk you ever met could drink. Cause we just REKKED them up, baby!>> A bit of honest piracy: it's good for the soul.
