Log:Rogue Squadron: 'Toast' Down

Rogue Squadron: 'Toast' Down

OOC Date: February 10, 20221
Location: Codru Munto
Participants: Jax Greystorm, Zandra naMuriel, Sesti Greystorm, Nerys Greystorm, Ax, Karas Darkwing, Tallie Lintra

< Rogue Leader (Tallie Lintra) >=======================================

The kick of the T-85's Incom-Frei engines lighting up is one of Tallie's favorite moments flying. Behind her, the Squadron drops off the fighter racks and spills out the door to plummet into the atmosphere on a trajectory toward Rogue Three's location. The downed pilot's transponder is a tiny chirp in the din of the war raging around Montu Codru. Above them, the Renegade rises into a higher orbit, leaving the Squadron to their mission.

<<"Following the mission briefing, pilots, we drop in, pick up Toast and bug out with him on the Irregular's shuttle. Simple. No fuss, no muss. Run screen for the shuttle and keep a sharp eye out for incoming.">>

Fiver beeps that all systems are green as they hit their window into the atmosphere. Contact between the pilots goes static as the cockpit is engulfed in atmospheric friction, turning the world red.

The Birena Tai was many things, but she was not a Republic star fighter. She was, possibly, the quickest, nimblest YT-2400 money and a lot of top shelf engineering could buy, and she slid away from the protection of the republic fleet to move into formation with Rogue Squadron once they launched and she was given the okay. <<This is Jetpack on the Birena Tai. Crew is ready to proceed on your orders. We have medical onboard if it is required and we are prepared for retrieval.>>

Rogue 5 in the A wing slides out of the Renegade and falls into possition, the zippy little fighter craft keeping with the X wings in her squad with ease. << Rogue 5 green, >> she reports in, as she rechecks her sensors and all the rest, then drops with the squad into the atmosphere, She's calm, relaxed, pausing only a moment to center herself. <<Here we go. >>

On the Birena Tai, 'medical' was comfortably settled into the turret bay with a view over the top of the YT. With her headset on to listen in on coms, Sesti doesn't add anything verbally to what Nerys says, keeping chatter to a minimal. She's wearing her void armor, just in case, but not planning on doing anything outside the freighter unless she's in atmosphere helping Toast.

Falling off the racks, Rogue 2's engines come to life rocketing the T-85 down towards Codru. Karas rolls his fighter lazily so that he's now in formation with the rest of the squadron. Karas checks over his sensors and Spark who beeps at him a few time letting him know everything is good. <<Rogue 2 reporting in. All systems green.>> he says. Going into Atmo, he takes a breath and presses a button on his console and music filters out. <<Copy that Rogue Leader.>> he says to her.

Rogue 9 emerges from the hanger of the Renegade forming up with Rogue Leader. << Rogue 9 in formation and everything is green. >> He unzips his breast pocket of his flight suit and produces the holocapture of his family tucking in the corner of one of the display instruments. "Alright Exine. This should be a by the book pick up.>>

Then Exine chirps at Jax, THe jedi pilot looks over at Yt-2400 joining up with them in formation. "No buddy, your right, that isn't the Irregulars U-wing. I got a bad feeling about this." The droid raspberries, "You're right, I always got bad feelings. See if you can talk to Belate for me? Have him tell Nerys, we're in Rogue 9." The droid chirping an affirmative.

<< Birena Tai, This is Rogue 9. I'm serving as Xo for this mission. Welcome to the party. If you'd slip on into the cradle. We'll provide escort and start the atmosphere insertion.>>

With everyone in place, << Rogue 9 to Rogue leader, we are in formation. The mission is green across the board. Xo confirms squadron is combat ready and weapons hot. May the force be with us.>> Then Jax press forward on the flight stick and begins the descent to the planet as his cockpit begins to flash red hot before his visor darkens.

The Squadron is running without its full complement of fighters with a vulnerable shuttle at the heart of their formation. Scans look free and clear as they drop into the outer limits of the stratosphere. As the sky turns from grey to blue around them voices return on coms. <<"Copy that, Birena Tai. Think of us as your extra shields. Location of the pickup point and landing area should be on your screens now.">>

Fiver chitters to itself as it sends the coordinates to the YT-2400. The moment of blue sky changes rapidly as they sink lower into the atmosphere. A turmoil of black clouds edged in green are lit from within as lightning darts between them. In her cockpit, Tallie yells like she is riding a wild bantha as a strong gust of wind makes the X-Wing jump.

As ordered, the 2400 moved into the pocket of space which the squadron had made for the ship. "Yes, I heard him, Belate, tell him everything's fine." A few seconds later, the BB unit's chirpy, tinny binary came across the comms to Exine, <We're okay, everything's fine here. We're all fine. Nothing to worry about.> Nerys, tapping the comms for the ship-only intercomm, called up to 'medical'. "We're heading in, Sesti. We go in and pick him up and get out. If you need to abandon the guns, I won't be mad at you. I'm going to have enough explaining to do with Jax as it is." She didn't need to *also* explain how Sesti might have ended up needing to medical herself. And then it was time for formation flying, not at all something Nerys was much experienced with, being more of a lone bird, but she managed well enough as they made their entry into atmo, her hands gripping hard on the controls as she worked to keep the ship from being buffeted around. Dinner-plate shaped ships were not the most aerodynamic, despite evidence to the contrary. <<Copy that, Rogue Leader. We appreciate the assist. I have his location.>>

Zan's ship makes it into atmo. She's travelling slow for an A wing, just keeping up with the X wings. But shh, don't tell them that. << There's a clearing it looks like - is that where we can expect to find our missing pilot?>> she asks, as she continues to keep an eye on what all is going on. She hears the chatter, and it brings a grin to her face, as she continues to keep her ship moving, and keep an eye open for anything untoward.

"What would you need to explain to Jax?" Sesti asks Nerys on the in ship coms with mild curiosity from her spot in the turret gun seat. "He taught me how to fire a turre- oooh, did you see that flash?" she asks, pausing in her thought to watch the lightning play through the clouds. "Always love watching a good play of lightning," she muses. She listens to Jax's communication come through to the Tai, and smiles lightly to herself, listening to her husband be all in charge. She sets her feet down and checks the instrumentation around her to make sure that her weapons are at the ready.

Glancing around, Karas sees the Birena Tai, he doesn't recognize the ship but if it's here to help teh more the merrier he feels. <<Yeah, may the Force be with us.>> he says after Jax. "Spark let's get ready to do what we need to do." he says. Spark bleeps a few times, Karas listen to the comm chatter on the tact net. Seeing the Birena Tai move into the formation so that Rogue could keep them covered, Karas smiles a little bit.

As he breaks atmo, he begins running scans as well, they needed to get in and get out. He picks up everything he can see and also notices the E-Wing and the crash site. <<Roger that Rogue 5. I see a lot of forest but also I see a clearing. At the foot of the mountains I see the crash site and Rogue 3. I'm transmitting location to rest of the squadron.>> "Spark transmit the information to the rest of the squadron." he says to his astromech.

Jax laughs at Belate's response. Then looks at his sensors, "You seeing that clearing at the base of the mountain. The scars around it looks like what a crashed fighter would have left.a trail crashing." The little droid beeps an affirmative. Looks like Splash and Sparks got better eyes than us tonight. " Then Jax opens up the channel, << Good job, Splash. Looks like I'm buying you a drink tonight. >>

Jax looks over at the lighting and frowns. As the formation shift slightly Rogue 9 drifts vertically over the top of the Tai by several meters as the run escort. If he's aware of who is sitting in the gunnery seat beneath him. He's made no action to let anyone know he knows.

Below the raging storm, snow-covered mountain peaks appear through the flashes of light. Clouds obscure the ground. Sensor readings guide them through the tempest. Rain drums against the transparasteel canopy, turning to a fine mist around Fiver riding in his socket; suddenly, the clouds are above them.

<<"We are sending in 'Splash' to land with the Birena Tai. Violet, Deadeye and Rogue Leader will remain flying in a pattern above you until you launch. Good luck. Be careful. We have your Six.">>

Below the raging storm, snow-covered mountain peaks appear through the flashes of light. Dark clouds obscure the ground. Sensor readings guide them through the torrential rainfall. Drops drums against the transparasteel canopy, turning to a fine mist around Fiver riding in his socket; suddenly, the clouds are above them. <<"We are sending in 'Splash' to land with the Birena Tai. Violet, Deadeye and Rogue Leader will remain flying in a pattern above you until you launch. Good luck. Be careful. We have your Six.">>

"Well," Nerys admitted over the ship's internals, "I...might have forgotten to mention to him that I invited you along in this mission. Which, in retrospect might mean that you will have at least one patient in your old medical bay after this is done." But, Nerys was no Debbie Downer, and that was a problem to deal with later. As were most problems with this particular Greystorm. <<Thank you, Rogue 2. We are following the squadron's lead and will remain in formation until given clearance for retrieval.>> And then, as Rogue Leader gave her orders, the Tai descended, moving in towards the marked pickup zone. "Let's hope he has access to comms so we can pinpoint his location as soon as possible."

Zan manages the flight through the storm, along with the X-wings. She's keeping an eye on the sensors, worried about there maybe being incoming traffic. << Rogue 5 - good luck out there, Splash and Tai. Bring home our Toast. >> Yeah, okay, someone is never going to hear the end of this. She has a slight smile on her face, and it can be heard in her voice, though she doesn't say anything more. The A wing deals with the pressure well enough, shields holding, piloting solid, and pilot calm but alert. It's one of those days. So far, so good.

With the data having been transmitted to the rest of the squadron and to the Birena Tai. <<Copy that Rogue Leader.>> Karas says as he breaks formation but keeps with Nerys as they descend towards the crash site, <> Karas says as he pulls back on his speed. <<No prob.>> he calls back to the Tai. Rogue 2's sleek form moves easily through the storm but as he descends the wind buffets Rogue 2 and he has to fight against the storm, "Hold on Spark!" he calls to his astromech. Karas isn't a slouch when it comes to flying, he's always trying to fly somewhere, but upon seeing that there isn't any threats, <<We're clear Tai, go ahead and land.>> he says to her.

There's a chuckle over ship's comms to Nerys as Sesti looks up at the x-wing flying protectively over her head. "You do not need to tell Jax," she informs the pilot smuggler. As she hears the instructions coming through from Rogue Leader, her brows draw together. "Really? Deadeye?" she asks. "Was Bumper already taken?"

As the Tai lands, Jax pulls the engine throttle down to Zero as he turns on his repulsor engines. It leaves him hovering above the scene in formation. He has no idea about the discussion about his callsign going on below. It's about that time Exine squawks at him. "I'm comfirming." Jax pulls back on the lever that engages the S-foils of the fighter craft. << Rogue Leader and Five. We got incoming. I'm not sure on who or what but enemy signals heading in this direction. >>

It had been a week, and Ax's booze rand out on the second day. The Echani wasn't a very happy camper. "We coulda walked to town and gotten out of here days ago," Ax says to his droid. There are a few beeps from the droid saying that if Ax hadn't crashed the ship they wouldn't even have to do that. There was a camo tarp stretched between a couple of trees and held up by rope to keep him out of the elements a bit. The batteries for his radio had died out, but his emergency beacon still worked fine. "Shut up," Ax tells the droid, who continues beeping. "No, I mean shut up I think I hear a ship." The droid finally quits its rant, likely having been on it all week while Ax awaited pickup. Sure enough, there was a ship landing in the nearby clearing. At first, Ax has a bit of difficulty making it out, but then he recognizes it. "Oh hell," he says, "If they made me wait a damned week in the woods in the rain without whiskey just so they could fly my wife here, I'm gonna be upset." Before he even finishes the sentence, a slightly battered Buster begins rolling towards the ship. The poor droid apparently took a harder hit on ejection than the pilot did. Ax just gathers stuff up, shoving it in the duffle bag he'd packed under his seat for just such an emergency. Slinging that over his shoulder, he begins making his way to the Tai. "Kadi's gonna kill me," he says with a sigh.

The rain stings the canopy, rolling in sheets, obscuring Tallie's view. Visibility is hardly more than 15 meters at the speeds they fly in low flat figure-eights overhead. <<"Rogue Leader, I copy that, Deadeye. Weapons live.">> As she speaks, six blips coming in at an angle that suggests they launched from the ground appear on her screen. <<"We have them on screens. Birena Tai, Splash, we have incoming. We need you off the ground ASAP.">>

Not to worry, Ax! Everyone's wife //except// yours was on the Tai. Well, mostly everyone's. But that wasn't Nerys' concern right now. Right now, she rose from her seat, "Sesti, I'm transferring ship controls up there to you, in case I can't get back in time and we need to hot foot it out of here." Nersy talked as she jogged, Jim, her trusty J9 handling lowering the ramp while Nerys came to supply covering support, drawing her bowcaster, Bitty, smol droid with a big blaster that she was doing the same, <<We are ready for exfil. We'll provide covering fire at entry point.>> She frowned, as she heard the report from Rogue Leader, and she lifted her voice, projecting as best she could, "Incoming, I know you can move faster than that!" And then she hit the internals, "Sesti, lift us off, you have his coordinates, let's get as close as we can and he can hop in." Or force jump in. What//ever//.

<< Roger, Lead, Weapons are live, and taking up defensive perimeter, >> Zan says. The A wing is moved just a touch to put it between th incoming bogeys and those getting the downed pilot off the planet. "You don't want to mess with us," she says, wishing that she could just make them turn around and go back. The water on the fighter sounds loud in her ears, and makes vision difficult, but the sensors are there. Zan reaches for the Force, instinctively.

From her vantage point at the top of the Tai, Sesti is scanning the ground around them. She hears the chatter about enemies in the air, and glances to her scanner, but there's nothing there, yet. "Lifting off," she says, and then catches a rustling in foliage off to starboard. "Hang on, rotating starboard about... oh, 63 degrees," she warns, and fires the thrusters to turn the ramp towards the rustling. "Hopefully you will be seeing Ax coming towards you in a moment, and not some huge, hungry, beast that likes to eat rescuers."

Landing across from the Tai, the canopy of his X-Wing opens up. The rain splattering against the hull of his fighter. Karas unholstered his D.D.C blaster pistol, he can feel the bite of the cold a little. He hops down out of his fighter and quickly open the pilot compartment and bring out his ladder. With them meeting in the middle, he scans the immediate area for any hostiles.

Hearing the incoming message, he picks up his commlink and listens and as he hears Tallie. He groans a little bit but he doesn't move until he sees his squadmate and friend before moving back to his fighter. When the Tai lifts off and moves closer, he can feel the engine wash a little as it rustles the surrounding area and him. Karas hadn't taking off his helmet, though the rain does mess with his eyes a little.

Jax watches as Zandra's A-wing goes zipping into the black of the storm clouds. The A-wing remaining on his scope. << Good hunting out there, Rogue 5. >> Then Jax makes a few adjustments, << Following Rogue 5's lead, Rogue Leader and moving to engage to allow the Irregulars to fall back. >. Jax hits a rudder peddle causing his X-wing to spin in place to the proper angle. Then engaging his thrusters as he turns off his repulsor engines. "Alright Exine, I'm not going to be able to see too good out here. You pick something up on the cross hairs. You sing out and light up my cross hairs."

Ax runs, throwing his duffle bag up the ramp before he bends down to scoop up his BB-series droid, tossing him in next. The poor droid's head almost gets lost in the process. Ax must have used the force to enhance his strength because when he jumps for the ramp, he damn near overdoes it and comes very close to cracking his head on the inside of the bulkhead. "Thanks," he says to Nerys as Buster is busy rolling about trying to get his bearings. In the distance, a group of four-winged bats are flying in what could only be a delta formation, laying waste to the insects that have been attracted by the lightshow that was the storm. The Echani likely had too much free time on his hands and decided to play with the local fauna.

"Who's flying? Do I need to man a gun or the pilot's seat," he asks Nerys, running a hand through his soaked hair. Aside from a week without shaving, and the need for a proper shower, Ax didn't seem any worse for wear or in need of medical attention.

Fiver bleeps as he identifies the six bogies as a half squadron of TIE/Sfs flying straight for them. Tallie opens the X-Wings foils into attack position, her hand tightening on the yoke in anticipation of the fight to come.

<<"Bogies identified, only six of them so far. We are not sticking around to take tea, people. Screen the Birena Tai, and let's get back on the Renegade in one piece."> In the cockpit, "Fiver, bring up targeting solutions. We are going to run and fight as we go." The slower transport rises into the air behind them, carrying their newly recovered pilot and the crew of the Irregulars taking risks to retrieve a family member. <<"How is Toast doing, Birena Tai?">>

"Pilot seat's yours if you want it," Nerys offered, as J9 hit the ramp and Nerys started off towards the cockpit. "I can copilot if you need it. Sesti's on guns." Yes, this was the Greystorm Express. Don't ask. "Don't know if she can handle both guns and the missiles. But the system's are interlinked. I can't do kriff with them." She didn't get into firefights, yo!. "You're looking good, Ax. Kadi won't even know you've been away." Once Nerys heard the call from Rogue leader, she opened the comms, <<Fit and fine as always. He and Buster are aboard.>> She made that mad dash for the cockpit, settling into one of the seats.

When Karas sees Ax toss his duffle, followed up by his BB unit. "Ok." he says as he turns and runs back to his fighter as Ax leaps to the landing ramp of the Tai. Karas isn't slow but not no where as fast as a force user, but his fighter isn't that far from where he is. He quickly climbs up the ladder and he kicks the ladder off his fighter. There was no time to stow it back. Spark didn't power down the X-Wing. "Thanks buddy, lift us off." he says as he starts to buckle himself in. Spark on the other hand begins piloting Rogue 2 off the ground. Using only the repulsor engines it turns and begins following the Tai out.

Karas is fully buckled in and he grips the controls and pushes the throttle forward to begin gaining speed so that he can keep up with the Tai. Upon reaching the others, his sensors pick up the incoming TIEs, "Kriff! Hold on back there." he says to Spark, <<Tai, I will keep you covered.>> he calls over to the Tai, and he sees blaster fire streak from the freighter which hits one of the incoming TIEs. When one of the incoming TIEs get too close, Rogue 2 brakes to it's left and drifts coming in behind the incoming TIE and he snaps off a series of shots which misses the TIE who dodges.

Zandra and her a-wing don't wait. She hits that throttle and the A wing zooooms ahead, showing the speed that has up until now been held in check. That does make her a target, but it also gives her the opportunity to fire first. She gets a green reticule on the first bogey and lets her lasers fly, before she pulls back to hit a figure eight, not forgetting for a moment that they are protecting the Tai.

"Turret is mine, flyboy," Sesti says with a grin when Ax makes his offer. "Sounds like you are fine and do not need me, so I should get something out of this trip," she adds as they take off and she is happy to let them take over the flying again. As the blips start coming up on her targeting system, she relies on the system rather than her eyes in the weather. A bloom of light ahead of them as she chips away at the shields rewards her shot.

In the Rain and the storm, Jax is relying on the Force and Exine. So when he lines up a shot on Exine's tones. He pulls the trigger and all four canons hit. There's the stripping of shields and as he flies past the Tie/SF marked as four. Exine comments about there being hull damage. "Better them than shooting at us than shooting at Sesti." Yes he knows but he's playing dumb.

<<"Renegade, Rogue Leader reporting. On return to the ship with pursuit. We'll be coming in hot.">> Fiver woooooahs as the T-85's shields glow a sickly green from heavy laser fire. The little droid groans and complains but sets to work on diagnostics. The rear shields are gone. <<"Birena Tai, scans show you took a hit. Redline your engines, we are not staying to fight.">>

Nerys took the controls, giving Ax time to get himself together. She already knew where they were headed, pedal to the metal and all that as she tried to escape the fire of the incoming Tie fighters. "I am //very// glad I did not bring that old U-Wing." If nothing else, the Tai could take a beating. return fire she left to Sesti, as she tried to maneuver her way out of the firefight. Which she was not at all successful at, as the ship was rocked by cannon and laser fire. Nerys didn't know. She just knew the alarms were going off. "What I wouldn't give to be trying to pilot through an asteroid field right now." They might end up less dead. <<We've taken some damage, but we're still fully operational. Continuing to rendezvous.>> And then she did say a prayer. Not to any god, not at all, but she did offer a thought up to the engineer that had rebuilt the Tai, as she pushed the engines as hard as she could. "Sesti, they better have a bay ready for us...or else you can just make us a hole." She was kidding. Mostly.

It is indeed one of those days. In the rain, thunder and lightning, with all the clouds and the bad weather, the enemy TIEs are returning fire. There are a couple firing at the A wing, and they're good pilots, good shots, which means that Zandra pulls off some fancy flying in order to not get hit. She stretches that A wing's abilities in atmo to where it might make Miri scold her, should she discover the flying that Zan did. At the end of it, Zan comes up with a reticule green target painted on bogey one. She fires, watching her lasers ping off the shields.

Rocking a little as the shots hit, Sesti makes sure she doesn't tighten her fingers on the triggers accidentally. "Good thing she has shields," she mutters under her breath. "Hold on shields..." Once the jostling has settled, she takes up her aim again, but, as the order comes through and Nerys puts on a burst of speed, Sesti loses her tone just as she fires. She almost gets whiplash herself, but she doesn't complain. "Yes, time to go," she agrees, but she still keeps her eyes on the targeting system, just in case something should get in their way as they high tail it to the Renegade.

Rogue 2 missed his first shot but due to that miss, he was in the line of fire. Flying and fighting in atmosphere is nothing new, he dives and rolls his fighter wing over wing to evade the first set of shots, but the second shot hits him hard. "WHat the kriff was that?" he asks as he glances back. Spark indicates it was a heavy laser. "Great." he says. Karas shows why he's a damn good pilot and he sees that the other Rogues were doing what they could to help the Tai. "Screw this." he pulls back on the joystick and he manages to track the enemy TIE he shot at the first time and he fires! His shots shreds the TIE fighter, he rolls through teh explosion, <<Splash 1.>> he says as he pushes ROgue 2 to catch up with the rest of the squadron.

Ax is busy getting positioned into the gunners seat of the Tai, familiarizing himself with the controls. He's firing as best he can, but it was obvious he'd been spending more time in a starfighter of late than firing turrets. "Thanks Sesti and Nerys. What took you so long?" he asks with a chuckle. "And where's Kadi, does she know yet? Got anything to drink. I ran out of whiskey like a week ago."

Jax and four are jousting and neather one of them can seem to not touching each other on this second pass. Then word to get otu of dodge comes up and Jax smiles. << Thanks for playing. Maybe next time. >> Jax says turning and running. Exine says to Jax that the Tai is fine. The Corellian lets out a deep breath replaxing.

<<"Renegade Command to Rogue Leader, copy that. We see five on your tail at present. We are dropping into low orbit for rendezvous with you Rogue.">>

On the bridge, gunners are running point defense triangulations. All stations are tensely focused on the incoming shuttle with its fighter escort. Landing bay crews ready themselves for the five friendly ships running at max speeds toward them.

Scans reflect in a smear of orange, green, and yellow across Tallie's face shields as she keeps watch over the Squadron punching out of the atmosphere towards the Renegade. Lightning streaks across the sky like celebratory fireworks as they climb out of the clouds then make the steep climb toward the welcoming hangar of the Renegade. <<"Almost home. Welcome back, Toast. We'll buy you a round.">>