Log:Resistance: Working Hard
The Resistance: Working hard
OOC Date: August 17, 2019
Location: Orbit around Dellalt
Participants: Callax Dalso, Calevaro, Ektor, Elrych Cometburn, Poe Dameron, Lofty, Tallissan Lintra, Nova Korell, Merek, The Resistance
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The heavy ore hauler *Raxus Minor*, a BFF-1 class transport, has lifted off from Mining Camp Ju-och and begun its ponderous ascent through the atmosphere of Dellalt. An unaligned second, smaller freighter (the Nestt-class *Spider Monkey*) has chosen to lift off at the same time, taking advantage of safety in numbers.
The Resistance pilots and their pirate allies are in a variety of largely unremarkable civilian craft, in the upper atmosphere of the large ocean world. A Preybird, Longprobe, and pair of light attack fighters are loosely grouped together, with comm chatter generally teasing the Y-wing pilot for being slow. <<Hey, my brains got nothing to do with- oh, you meant the engines. Shut up, anyway,>> Ektor states, to snickers and laughter.
As the pale atmosphere of Dellalt begins to thin, giving way to the black void of space, the little convoy climbs steadily higher, so far without any sensor contacts
Lofty is lifting off in escort after a day of uneventful metal detecting on the beach, searching for Xim the Despot's buried treasure. He only found a few gold teeth. His old third-hand GAT-12j fighter rattles in the atmosphere as its maneuvering fins deploy vertically; like an old F-15, this ship has served decades in obscure planetary militias before being sold to Lofty in a semi-legal straw purchase. After some shoring up of the structural integrity it is back to serving convoy duty. His R2 droid is manning the sensor station. Four aftermarket cup holders are filled with four different fizzy sugary beverages.
They climb out of the atmosphere in the wake of the Nestt, flight logged in with control, another of the unremarkable takeoffs following the heavy ore lifter. The T-6 Shuttle's wing crescent moon wings are horizontal as they make the climb. Strapped into her pilot's seat Tallie's face is set in a frown as she manipulates the controls when they go into free fall. The wings cycle into a vertical position giving them the look of a bird turned on edge.
"Flight check, Nova, for turret positions. Don't put a missile in the tube yet. Scan would see that. Fiver! You are on active scanning, mark now."
Ektor's voice can be heard on the coms, "We are keeping comm silence for the moment except for ground control. But listen to Ektor!" Ektor's voice lightens the frown on her face and she settles behind the controls with a little more ease. "Looking good so far."
The Ocilu arrived a bit later than the other ships for this operation. This is due to the fact that its pilot had to get familiarized with the ship's layout and controls before launching. Now the civilian ship is alongside the others. "Sorry for being late," Calevaro says on the comms, his stomach lurching as he thinks about the mission a head, hopping that what happened last time won't happen again. He keeps the Ocilu evenly leveled with the other ships, making sure the ship has enough room to maneuver or to respond to any unplanned situation.
In the gunnery station of the /Starbird/, Nova Korell quietly runs through the checklist for the remote quad laser turret. "Traverse... elevation... check. Targeting computer... check. Power regulator controls... check. So far, so good, Sunshine," she says, glancing over and smiling faintly at the other blonde. She's dressed casually in tan work pants and jacket over a black tee, with calf-length field boots. "Jammer, how are you back there at the engineering station?"
The reply through the intercom is raspy and harsh, the Binary equivalent of 'Eh, somebody's gotta do it.' Nova chuckles, and looks again to Tallie. "He's good. Now we just wait and see if anybody decides to bother our friends."
Largely unremarkable. Largely. But then there's Callax, who is...well. Callax. Seated behind the pilot's station on board the sleek, angry blastboat /Inevitable/, the ship's slate gray plating does nothing to make it stick out any less.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen," Callax calls out over the headset comms of the three others at their stations on the flight deck, his soft contralto a purr in every ear. "Let's look alive today - this is our debut, and I'd very much love it if we would make a good impression." Truly, he sounds more like a fussy mother at the first day of school than a steely-eyed combat ace, but that's how it is. Right now, they have everything to prove.
"Aye," says a lean, grim human man sitting at the engineering station in a plain gray flightsuit; this is Killian, who looks almost as bored at his station as Callax is stern. And of course, he's no engineer - Fang is aft, in the guts of the ship, handling that - he's just here to pull weapon duty in an emergency. Merek's at the weapons station to handle the ship's double turret.
"Aye, Witchy," says a handsome Bothan woman, her hair pulled back from her furred face in a severe, professional bun; she too wears a gray jumpsuit, where Callax wears full pilot's kit. This is Page. "We're on it."
The apellation makes Callax wince internally, but he manages a smile. "Keep an eye on the scopes, Mister Merek," he says instead of respoding to his Bothan co-pilot. "Let's see who rolls in."
White Wormhole Elrych breaches the clouds roaring towards the atmosphere in his new Kimogila fighter, his droid secured in the socket and chirping at him. "Yeah she slow but she got room ebough for a huyt so I ant complaining. His music plays on low through the ships internal soeakers he likely installed himself. Ge jeeps his wits about him though, trusting a combination of scanners and the force.
Merek has put on his smuggling equipment which is adjusted about him, his goggles placed upon also and a few flightsuit materials on it also. He nods a bit when Callax speaks, while he takes a moment to check on the scanners also.
The freighters are still deep within the planet's gravity well when sharp eyes or ship's sensors show the bulbous silhouette of the Ton-Falk escort carrier *Indrexu's Shield* streaking out of hyperspace directly ahead of the convoy, promptly belching a dozen bizarre fightercraft into space, within weapons range of the small freighter convoy. The *Raxus Minor* transmits, <<Really wish I was wrong, this time- Need five minutes to clear the gravity well.>> Of the fightercraft which promptly open heavy fire on the convoy, one pirate (Ek-shiik) describes them as <<Backwards TIEs?>> and the description is apt: a single hexagonal solar panel in the classic TIE style, but flanked by a pair of eyeball modules, one of which supports an oversized cannon.
Lofty's droid chirps from the scanning station behind him. "I never seen those ships before," the massive Talz says over the civilian comm. The R2 begins to angle the deflector shield as Lofty fires up the missiles and the triple ion cannon. "Locking on carrier." Missiles are quite expensive so he secretly hopes the Resistance will reimburse him.
Fiver begins to whistle like a tea kettle on the fire once they have begun to go weightless. "Put it on holoprojectors, stat, Fiver."
Puzzled Tallie leans as far as her harness will let her as they still climb looking for position on the incoming that can be seen in the projection.
"Goddess of the Infinite Universe! Nova, look what they released!" After that exclamation, Tallie buttons down into fighter mode, eyes narrowed on the current positions. "Alright. We are acquiring missile lock on the escort carrier. Line us up, Fiver."
"Well, I do hope we all leave the stage alive," Calevaro replies over the comms to Callax. "But yes, A good performance for us all!" He says cheerfully.. He blinks as his sensors detect the arrival of their targets, quickly scanning the unusual fighters. He sighs, deciding to keep his comments to himself for the time being, quickly starting to manipulate the ship's controls. The cockpit shifts around him, the tactical display now being in front of him. He scans it for a moment before he starts to type locking coordinates for the ship's missile launcher, the now familiar solution beeps being almost sooting. His target is the Carrier. Almost as an after thought, he shifts the cockpit's controls and screens around his chair once more, making sure that yes, his lasers are ready just in case they are needed.
"Wow... what kind of screwball engineer thought /that/ was a good idea?" Nova has to ask Tallie, looking at the profile on her sensor monitor. "On the plus side, they should be easy to take out. They put that side shield in the worst possible place!" She swings the turret as the ships come flying their way, picking one at random and opening fire!
The result is spectacular: The bizarro TIE bursts into a million glowing fragments with the first quad-burst! "Woo! First blood for the Starbird Sisters!" Nova crows, leaning over to hug Tallie enthusiastically.
It's been a while since Callax has had to command a crew - but here it is, the old bath of blood, warm and welcome and waiting for him. "Damn it all," he mutters to himself, punching the ship ahead at intercept velocity. "Page, target Three and fire missiles. Mister Merek, clean up what she hits. Fang! Prepare yourselves, those drone fighters are back again!"
In the back, Fang elicits a loud and irritable whoop - he's going to have a lot of work ahead of him, he knows it.
"All right, darling," Callax mutters to himself, eyeing the targeting scope as he brings the ship into a suitable combat approach, "Payback's a bitch." And so is he, as it happens, for /Inevitable/ spits fury in two different directions; revolving about the engine trunk its wing assembly spews a coil of bright, crackling ion bolts, a third stream emerging from the nose - and, fired by keen-eyed Bothan, a concussion missile streaks from one of the launcher apertures over the nose cannon and slams into one of the hourglass fighters just as Callax's torrent of ionized death strips clean the shields of another. Now, its Merek's turn.
White Wormhole El feels the Force tingle and lets it flow through him. His senses heighen and so does his reaction tim. "Eggsy... put on the fast mix." He rolls the slower craft and brings the targeting computer up tonget a lock on the carrier.
Merek shifts one of the targeting systems upon the weird TIE which has no shields at the moment, then he begins to place his fingers on the triggers to fire laser cannons at it, which then shimmer along space until they strike the target which spins to a ball of flame. <<X3 is scratched,>> he says on the comlink also. He then spins up weapons on the turrets again to charge for another also.
Merek shifts one of the targeting systems upon the weird TIE which has no shields at the moment, then he begins to place his fingers on the triggers to fire laser cannons at it, which then shimmer along space until they strike the target which spins to a ball of flame. <<X3 is scratched,>> he says on the comlink also. He then spins up weapons on the turrets again to charge for another also.
The loud beeping coming from the cockpit signifies to Poe that he's clear of the atmosphere and bringing up the tailend of the convoy. Normally, under any other circumstance, the Ghost would not have been on sensors, but Poe was flying under the assumption there would be trouble. Reaching up to kill the beeping noise in the control cabin, Poe finally settles into a smooth tempo with the ship. Bright gold engines glow bright as all weapon hardpoints come online.
It's not long after, the engagement begins. Of the squadron that got by most of the heavily gunned ships, Poe singles out one and fires! Miss! He just laughs as the slow turning Ghost spirals. "We'll get at him in a second, quit being so impatient BB-8." The droid, who had been completely silent this entire time, just slowly turns his head to look at the pilot. "What?" Poe asks, laughing again.
<<Eh drek, these Hutt-suckers again?>> Ektor gripes, banking his recon bomber onto an intercept course for the charging Bizarro drones. Advising the other Tionese as he does so, <<Keep em off the freighters, but if one of these rekkers takes a shot at you, go full evasive. A hit from those will wreck you, yeah? Come on, lets get some->> the Tionese fighters dive onto the attack, with the lead HLAF and the Preybird combining fire to destroy one of the oncoming fightercraft. A harsh female voice howls, <<You like it rough, yeah?>> triumphantly.
Eerily, the TIEs do not diverge from their initial chosen targets, regardless of incoming fire: the largest freighters are targeted in the opening pass, and the allied joy is short lived: the *Raxus Minor* takes a hit, and it?s stout shields waver, the smaller Nestt is less fortunate, and is annihilated by a mere three shots, exploding so swiftly, that not even escape pods had a chance to launch. The trio of TIEs which had destroyed the *Spider Monkey* vector to seek new targets.
Lofty takes a stiff drink of FizzyGlug and, after securely putting the can back in his cockpit's cupholder, grips the flight yoke of the skipray blastboat. The last of the thin stratosphere of Dellalt bleeds away. A beep is heard over the cockpit when missile tone is achieved; he hits the firing stud with a black claw. Unfortunately the missile fires and the lock fails. Maybe the concussion missiles themselves had been stored improperly, leading to their electronic circuits degrading? Auction lots are not famous for their temperature control or maintenance. The missile veers off into space where it will hopefully explode. "These TIEs real disciplined. Is they droids?" His R2 unit picks up the scanning, but Lofty abandons his hunt for the carrier, instead turning to engage fighters harassing their escortee.
Barely out of the atmosphere missiles are released on their deadly course, laser fire is bright against the black of space. Fiver beeps and whistles as they wait to release the missiles from the T-6. Tallie, though out of the familiar cockpit of her X-Wing, is in that state of intense concentration - the Zone, as she calls it to herself and drops right out of it when Nova turns to hug her.
"Hey! Whoa! Good hit. I want those missiles to bingo on the Escort, girl,"she exclaims with a startled grin.
Moving into position, of course, has them on the Escort's scanner as well as the attention of one of the bizarre TIEs.
Alarms sound. "Target lock on us," is hardly announced before the ship is buffeted as though in a heavy wind. The rainbow of dying shields flare around them. "Fiver you are on repair," Tallie yells. "You good, Nova?"
Target lock acquired keens from their board, missiles are released and they lumber into position to fire lasers.
Calevaro blinks as his sensors confirm to him that yes, one of the nests was just destroyed in a second. He simply shakes his head in a mix of amusement and dread, the analytical part of his mind trying to think how much damage the Ocilu would take before the worst were to happen. He shakes his head again, trying to push these thoughts away, his focus on the targeting solution and on his mission. He turns back to the firing controls, pressing the trigger to fire the missiles. The Ocilu's missile tub does its job perfectly, a missiles is fired towards the Carrier, a grin appearing on his face when the sensors indicate the explosion and the hit were successful. He manipulates the navigation controls, keeping the ship steady.
"A little dinged, but still here," Nova replies, wincing and tugging her lap belt a little tighter. "Wow, those things really hurt! Shields are down to 60 percent!" She swivels the turret aft to pick up that marauder, but misses narrowly. "Frell... he's still back there! So's his friend!"
Guided along by Callax's skilled hands, /Inevitable/ executes a slow, scything arc through space, spewing revolving spirals of electricity downrange at X2. The droid fighter manages to counter-revolve and escape further harm, but Callax is ready to continue pouring on the punishment.
"Missile away," Page says from the copilot's station, golden eyes fixed upon the scope - she is as calm as a mountain lake, and her calm is what allows her to squeeze off another warhead at exactly the right moment. Hissing through space, the missile strikes home, the explosion stripping away shields and hull armor alike as the drone fighter tries its best to keep on mission. Inexorable meets /Inevitable/. Battle for philosopers, that.
"Excellent," Callax calls brightly from his station. "Good job, everyone, now let's step it up and let's keep that bulk hauler intact!" White Wormhole el lets the vaporous purple haze of a proton torpedo loose from the maw of the white wormholes launch. He flies past the carrier as it hits, looking to his screens. <<"Shields holding... moving in on the fighters...">>
Merek moves with the targeting system to charge it and also fire on another of the TIEs as well. The cannons blast clean into that hull while it spirals to flame into space. He then nods a bit, "Next target," he says, while he's charging that weapon also.
The Ghost manages to avoid being hit by the overpowered laser cannon, the massive streak glaring past a portion of Poe's view port. When the Ghost manages to level out again, Poe has to ease the throttle forward to get a bit more speed before his cannons can reach maximum effective range and fire. When there, both heavy double laser cannons fire, shattering the shields. The Tie flies in one direction, and the Ghost breaks for another.
Ektor winces at the swift death of the *Spider Monkey*, guiding his wishbone toward the array of hostile fighters which are tearing through the once-formidable shields of the surviving bulk freighter, and already carving into its hull. <<Drek, Janissars I'd better not hit them bastards before you all, yeah?>> Muttered agreements answer him as the quartet roar after the enemy drones, cannons blazing.
Though the looming escort carrier's shields have weathered the salvos of missiles without untoward difficulty, shortly after deploying a small object from its aft hangar chute, *Indrexu's Shield* micro jumps ten thousand kilometers away, to the very edge of even capital ship sensor range.
The old blast boat under Lofty's command is turning from the carrier to engage TIE fighter X1, but something catches one of his four eyes. "Droid, scan what that ship drop," he warbles through his snoot at the mechanical sensor operator. His ship makes an attack run on X1, firing the three Mendarn Arms Dar-2 ion cannons several times. SWOP SWOP SWOP. But the ion cannon fire hits nothing. His droid comes back with a sensor report and Lofty says over the comm, "Watch out, that ship drop assault mines before it jump."
The little droid manages to bring the shields up to sixty percent. "Keep working on them. Come on, Fiver," Tallie says distractedly. "What did that Escort drop out the aft? Did anyone get a fix on that?" Targeting systems on the shuttle finally get a target on the TIE that has been dogging them. Squeezing the targeting throttle the lasers blow the TIEs shields away leaving it wide open for Nova.
"Get'em, Nova, just get'em"
"The carrier has left, I'm changing my focus to the fighters," Calevaro announces over the group's com channel. Thats when the Ocilu is spotted by one of the Bizarro fighters. The smaller crafts accelerate towards the Ocilu, the pilot trying to come close to the larger freighter. It doesn't work. The Ocilu starts to bank right and when the fighter tries to do the same, Calevaro reverses the ship's course. The ship moves back to its original position, then manoeuvres again in quick succession. his opponent spin quickly, the pilot of the fighter probably disoriented for a moment. in a circle. Too quickly, in fact. While the fighter is recovering, the Ocilu breaks away, flying to a safer distance, for now, far from the fighter's heavy cannon. Despite the situation and the fact that he is outgunned, Calevaro decides to charge the enemy fighter. The Ocilu's engines rumble loudly as it accelerates. It gets as close to the drone as possible, before its single laser cannon fires. This is the sort of strategy that should never have worked in the first place. The fact that it does is impressive. The pilot didn't fully recover from the spin yet and wasn't able to react in time to avoid the laser shots, one of which hits a critical component within his fighter. First there are sparks and small explosions, then the ship simply breaks, pieces start to come of of its hull before there is a larger explosion. "I can't believe that worked," Calevaro says over the comms, smiling widely under his helmet.
Back in the engineering bay, Jammer rasps something irritable at the galaxy at large and pops his SCOMP link, interfacing with the computer control on the main reactor. He adjusts and reroutes power around a couple damaged linkages, boosting deflector screens to full strength again.
"Awesome, Jammer! I'm on that little backstabber, Tals," Nova says from her station, swiveling the guns forward to track X10. She anticipates its next jink and opens fire... and is surprised when the TIE Freak-job swerves /right into her fire/ and obligingly explodes! "Woo! Only one after us now!"
She looks back to the sensors. <Snowball, did I copy you correctly? /Assault mines/? Suggest we clear those out before /Raxus/ runs into them.>
Finally, /Inevitable's/ electric tirade ionizes X2, leaving the droid fighter floating in space - and once more, Page's nerves of steel sees another warhead driving home into another of the machines. "That settles it, Page," Callax says with a sigh. "You've somehow managed to get even worse than before. Just awful. I mean."
"Mmmhmm," the Bothan woman replies with pursed lips. "The worst. You'll have to fire me soon, no doubt."
"Once the stars burn out and you've killed everyone else in the galaxy," Callax mutters. "Suns below." Then, louder, he calls, "Merek! Finish off her victim. Let's turn around and see if we can help clean up the rest."
White Wormhole Elrych falls into a dogfight with one of the droid TIEs chasing it around the battlefield. He takes a shot but it goes wide.
Merek looks to the targeting system, then he begins to focus upon the aiming. He shifts so that he can shoot where the TIE will be, with the cannons shifting into space to blast another of the ships to spiraling into space. He then offers a wink to Page. Well, as best as you can with your goggles on. "Nice," he says, then he's thinking about it while he speaks to his comlink, <<Another, X6 is scratched also.>> he says as well.
The Ghost twists past the wreckage of one TIE and opens fire on another directly ahead. The cannons, silent in the void of space, rattle the ship when they discharge. Poe chuckles, glancing at BB-8. "That guy should've stayed home." The Ghost throttles back, moving toward the remaining smaller threats to mop them up. <<"See if we can pull all callsigns away from their care package. Otherwise, Dellalt is going to get a firework show on the surface.">>
<<Bringing in the big guns,>> the lead HLAF says with an audible smile, taking out the drone that had been damaged by the Longprobe in the last pass. Ektor answers dryly, <<Zap, we all know your guns ain't that big.>> After being answered with laughed profanity, Xer adds, << I meant the bird, obviously. Light cannons, yeah?>> The second HLAF hits the last drone (X7), but its shields hold. The solitary TIE fires a turbolaser blast that only narrowly misses destroying the heavily damaged *Raxus Minor*. The bulk freighter cuts its engines, stopping its flight toward the nearest edge of Dellalt's gravity well at Lofty's broadcast, actually lurching slowly into reverse as the last leaving of the Ton-Falk carrier scatters into a spread of magnetic mines.
Lofty's blastboat keeps a distance from the magnetic mines, breaking off as X1 is destroyed and turning his sights slowly on X7. He fires and his triple ion hits it, nearly busting its shield. "We may need calculate new course, freighter," he warbles over the comms.
"Hold on to your hat, Nova. We have a little jigging to do. X1 is flying with impunity. Let's see if we can fix that. First, me. Then, you. Share and share alike." Tallie squeezes the button on the lasers after the targeting boxes line up nicely. "Its reading my mind." Simultaneous shots are traded with little damage taken by the Starbird sisters or the X1.
Seeing that there is only one fighter remaining, Calevaro moves the Ocilu to help the others who are engaging it. He lines the ship behind the busy fighter and presses the fire button. The Ocilu's laser cannon fires, the fighter lighting up. It is almost beautiful to see for the single moment that the display lasts. Soon comes the explosion of the ship and the scattering of its parts. "Should we try and destroy the mines?" Calevaro asks over the comms after the fighter disappears from his sensors.
"But I forgot my hat..." Nova protests quite seriously, blinking in confusion. "Wait... Tallie! We're heading for the mines! Pull off!"
Nova swings the guns to the fore again and opens fire, desperately peppering space with scarlet annihilation! Moments later, the mine that suddenly got the shuttle's scent explodes into space dust, less than a klick from the shuttle. "Whew! Close... seat of the pants isn't close enough for that one! Sunshine, are your briefs scorched? I think mine are!"
"All right," says Callax, drawing round as the mines are strung across the path of the wounded freighter, "Let me snag that ionized droid and chuck it into the minefield."
As the ship moves through space, and the ship begins to shudder with the power surging into the tractor emitter, Page blinks at the pretty man. "...why?"
"Because, darling," Callax says with a shrug. "It will be funny. And effective, I imagine." Looking to the tractor's targeting display, Callax tries to turn the beam of gravitons toward the silent fighter - but he overshoots it just a bit, causing the beam to sweep just clear.
"Oh, you're right," Page muses as she fires the /Inevitable/'s ion cannons, missing a tiny mine, "It's funny all right."
"Fine," Callax mutters, then calls to Merek. "Start clearing the field, Mister Merek!"
White Wormhole Elrych's face falls flat as the drone he was chasing gets taken out. "The one time I don't got to worry about killing anyone and..." Though his danger sense tingles and he brings the fighter to a stop just out of range of the mine web. <<"Going for a missle lock on the mines.">>
Merek nods a bit while he lifts both hands upon the targeting system, then he lines up with following upon the mines. There's a shift and when he presses the triggers for cannons they fire into a mine. "Alright," he says while he speaks on comlink, <<Scratch a mine,>> he adds.
The Ghost's tractor beam comes to life just as the ship slows near the ionized TIE. Within a few moments of orienting the craft to rest along the magnetic exterior cargo strip, effectively locking it down. The golden engines come back to life and Poe angles the Ghost away from the mines. <<"This is Ghost. I've got a sample I'm taking home. I'll see you back at camp.">> After a moment, the Ghost zips from view in a bright flash of engine contrails.
With the last of the live drones put down, the damaged *Raxus Minor* broadcasts its thanks, and ponderously sets in another course around the mines which the various ships are taking various levels of caution in clearing. Some are cautiously approaching at low speeds and laying down meticulous fields of fire, others are employing missile locks to be on the safe side, and others..
<<Hey. I bet I can get closer to one than you without triggering it, yeah?>> It takes all types, but in due time the localized menace is clear, and the last surviving civilian freighter streaks into hyperspace.
Lofty has his R2 unit calculate the next hyperspace jump, staying well clear of any mines. He doesn't care to engage them and get chased to the edge of the sector. Once things are calculated, the old blastboat zips into hyperspace. "See you there!"
"Is that why you are always trying to take them off, Moonbeam?" Tallie says, face turned away while she bites the inside of her cheek. Clearing her throat she double checks their path for mines.
"Alright, it looks like housecleaning is done. Personally, I'd like to know where that escort went." Frowning slightly, she begins the turnaround that will take them back into orbit. "Let's go get the Stormcrow. Thanks for running with me, Nova."
