Log:Rogue Squadron: Interdictor at Ifmax VI
Rogue Squadron: Interdictor at Ifmax VI
OOC Date: Spetember 26, 2020
Location: Ifmax VI
Participants: Jax Greystorm, Zandra naMuriel, David Ironside, Callax Dalso, Crash Tommaz, Karas Darkwing, Tallie Lintra
The FO has spread their immense resources to target the New Republic military and its planets economies. An escaped freighter reported the Interdictor Barge lying in wait on the space lanes of Ifmix VI. Its mission to disrupt military shipments to the New Republic, particularly Chandrila. It plays hide and seek on the edge of the system. An unnamed Raider Corvette with a flight of TIES, a mix of TIE/sf and TIE/In, runs protection for it on the outside chance that someone pinpoints the craft. The Interdictor has teeth - sixteen point defense lasers for targeting enemies.
Rogue Squadron, on intel brought by the lucky freighter, drops onto the edge of the Ifmix System near the last known point of the Interdictor. Waiting for them is the Barge, and, within sixty light seconds, the Raider. The voice of Rogue Leader crackles over encrypted coms, <<B-Wings on the Barge with Callax running point, the rest of the squadron will deal with the Raider and the TIES. It's going to get busy out there. You know your business, be wary of getting caught in a cross-fire between the Barge and the Raider."
<"Well look at that. I think we caught'em nappin'."> comes Crash's voice over th comms. That said, he presses both feet to the floor, firing both thrusters at full power. "What say we.. discourage them?" he asks as he reaches to his play.. and the beginning instrumental rock riffs of what has become his combat playlist begins. His head bobbin' as he arrows ahead, Crash waggles his stubby little wings and turns off his microphone before starting to hum along to the music. "Here we go!" he calls out to himself.
The E-wing serving as Rogue 9 reverts to real space and Exine starts screaming a high pitched allarm. Just as Tallie's orders come across the channel. <Rogue 9 here, following your orders.> He sighs as he brings up the shields and start to adjust weapons, "I know Exine. Mynocks young." The he switches the weapons to torpedoes, <Rogue 9 going in towards the Corevette. Mynock we didn't catch them asleep. They just didn't catch us with our pants down. May the Force be with us.> Jax says with a grin, "I want a target lock on the corvette. Glad Ax didn't make it on this one. He'd be crying about us blowing up a Raider."
David Ironside, pilot in Rogue 8, fiddles restlessly with the controls of his X-Wing. <<"Rogue 8 here, running support.">> he comms, flying with Jax' E-Wing at the Raider Corvette. <<"TIEs or otherwise, I'll be the 50 percent of a target anyone else would make up 100 percent of alone.">> With that, the wings spring apart with a mechanical whine. <<"I'm sure they're expecting to be hit at some point, they're not exactly sitting ducks.">>
<< Rogue Ten acknowledges, Leader. >> Callax, flying Rogue Ten, banks clear of the rest of the Rogues on the way once in realspace and given orders. << Bombers, I'm coming over to play spearhead. I'll do my best to draw any fire. >> The sleek fighter jets easily ahead of the death-crosses, with Callax nestled comfortably in its cockpit. When Babo elcits a quiet whistle of question, Callax glances at the ship's monitor and laughs. "The same as always, darling," they say. "Keep the shields up."
Zan is in an E-Wing, and she's flying in position, as the squad blinks out of hyper. << Rogue 5 here, acknowledged. >> She grins, cause Ono is there with her. "Hang on, Ono! We're about to fly,"" she says. Which - isn't that what they're doing? But of course it'd different when they get into a dogfight. Right now, this is just getting ready for go.
<<Copy that Rogue Leader, Rogue 2 on your wing.>> Karas says as he rubs the back of his neck. He stretches in his cockpit and then he sighs a little bit. <<Rogues, pay attention to your orders. Pair up and cover your wingmen.>> he says as Karas just decides to do better a a pilot and squadmate. <<If you need help kriffing ask for it, doesn't matter how good you are.>> he says as he moves up into formation. <<Rogue 2, Grip is ready to dance.>> he says using his old Black Squadron callsign.
The squadron flashes in close to their targets, and for once, they are not all in X-Wings. Jax and Zandra are flying E-Wings, Crash is in his beloved A-Wing. The rest of the squadron, Karas, the commander, David Ironside and Callax are in X-Wings, the all-around attack fighter. The squadron swoops in getting the drop on the Raider that deploys its flight of protective TIEs - two of the TIE/sf (Epsilon 1-2) and four TIE/fo (Epsilon 3-6) scramble out of the hold within minutes of their arrival. <<"This is Rogue Leader. Looks like we caught them napping! Rogue 10 do your thing, Rogue Eight, good luck!">> "Fiver, track the squadron, I'll take what is not being targeted."
"Whooo!" exclaims Crash as he accelerates ahead of everyone. He whips past the TIE'
Jax says as the beast of the E-wing deftly slips between the shields of the Imperial Raider and the ship. Exine screaming how much he hates it when Jax does things like that. The Corellian pulls the trigger releasing a pair of torpedoes. One of them hitting hard and causing the Raider's crew to rush around and go to battle stations. They felt that.
Seems David was wrong, they -were- napping and not expecting to get hit. <<"Oh, well, you win some, you lose some. Let's not give them all that much time to shake the cobwebs out of their heads.">> David comms, moving his X-Wing in tandem with Jax' heavy E-Wing on its attack run, TIEs scrambling to intercept ahead. <<"Nine, focus on your approach, I'll deal with any TIEs coming our way.">> he offers, as soon enough one dodges out of the way of a certain A-Wing and seemingly heads for the pair of Rogues as a consolation prize. <<"Got one incoming.">> David informs Jax, moving the stick aside slightly to intercept it, and doing so just absolutely destroys the TIE from one side of it to the other.
"Whooo!" exclaims Crash as he accelerates ahead of everyone. He whips past the TIE's with his cannons blazing away. Maybe he was trying to get their attention. "Damnit Crash. Fire first, then buzz'em. Fire first then buzz'em. I keep mixing that up." he mutters as he banks around to reorient for another run.
Soaring slightly ahead of the bombers - if you can call it that in space - Black Ten's instruments light up with the appearance of enemy fighters emerging onto the scene. << Intercepting bandit Five, >> Callax intones over the chop of encrypted comms, not bothering telling the bombers to keep on target - they're professionals, they know what's up. Callax sights up the TIE as it draws near their formation, and a stream of bright red light bursts from Ten's wingtips, but the TIE's pilot is wily and sends its fighter dancing away. "Oh, don't you start," Callax mutters under their breath, reaching out to cycle the auto-convergance system on the weapons board before preparing another salvo...
Rogue 5 sets up to attack, lining up with one of the tie fighters. Zan heads in to attack, as she tries to take out the fighters so as to provide cover for the ships on the big ship. << Rogue 5 targeting Epsilon 4, >> she says as she lets the e wing roar, throttling up.
Lining up his target, Rogue two quickly opens it's S-Foils and as they seperate into it's traditional X formation, Karas pushes his throttle to MAX, power goes into those four engines as the T-85 races towards it's target Episilon 2, which as it gets within range, the quad laser cannons fire but the TIE/sf evades and as it evades, Karas checkes his six and sees he's being jumped and green energy lances races towards him. He rolls and dives to evade the attack.
The Barge has teeth. It starts in on Rogue, defending its right to disrupt traffic with a vengeance, spreading its shots evenly among the Squadron. Lasers streak across the distance doing enough damage to Crash for him to have to do some fancy flying; Zandra receives a slight graze. Jax, in his dangerous move of hide-and-seek under the Raider's shields is tracked by turrets that the wily pilot avoids as it zig-zags laying down more damage. The first kill of the mission gets an accolade from the squadron. <<"We need to get through this fighter screen and lay down damage on the Barge.">> Just as Tallie speaks the Barge lays its point defense on her and a TIE heavy laser punctuates the action with a hit leaving Fiver with heavy repairs.
Man, this is not Crash's day. He got a shot in the backside, twisting out of the way at the last moment to make it a minimal hit before twisting about and trying to get a shot on the last remaining TIE/sf. The shots coming at him from all directions throw off his aim and his own shots zing into deep space before he shoves the throttles to the stops. "Blast!" he exclaims.
The canons of the Imperial Raider targets and fires as he flies up the spine of the small capital ship. Exine lets out a whooping cheer as Jax does a cork screw barrel roll dodging canon hits. The Corellian slips low going under the ship shields another time. "There is no death, there is only the force." He pulls the trigger again launching another pair of torpedos. The blue energy weapons striking. The small capital starts to off gas. The escape pods beginning to launch moments after Jax passes old Imperial Raider. <Rogue leader, you might see if they surrender? They're abandoning ship.>
<<Counts as a surrender from here, it's not like they're gonna get any good shots in from escape pods.">> David chimes in at Jax' query. <<"Move on to the next one, what do you say?">> With that, David turns his fighter away from the Raider, instead joining the others in attacking the remaining Special Forces TIE. A quick volley of laser fire bursts from the X-Wing's weaponized tips, though in the excitement of the dogfight, only one manages to find its target.
There is no Death, there is only Jax. And the Force, of course. While Callax doesn't SEE Jax all but kill the corvette on his own, they /do/ know the feeling - lots of drinks will be bought later on in the Jedi's name. Meanwhile, leading the bombers just ahead a bit more, the errant Five gets in Callax's engineered field of view, and the pilot heaves a bit of a sigh. << Bombers, this is Ten, >> they announce, a bit like an irritable cheerleader. << Looks like we've got a snoop. Proceed with your attack run, I'll get 'em. >> With a hard pull on the stick, Black Ten pulls back, nose angling up and up and up again as Callax executes a steep loop to get the TIE fighter in their sights. This time they catch the First Order pilot napping, and the TIE takes a full salvo dead center mass. Shields buckle, hull shreds, and the ship is swiftly bolting on defensive with flames streaming from multiple wounds in the structure.
<< Bandit Five is in retreat, >> Callax announces as ship descends to complete its loop alongside the rear of the bomber formation, moving to pick up. << Lining up to assist in your attack run, fellows. >>
With the tide of the battle shifting, some going after the Barge and others attacking his previous target, Rogue 2, Karas breaks from the group and begins harassing Epsilon 3, the regular TIE is still damn fast and with shields. "Come on.." he says and he hears Spark, "Thank's, just warn me if we getting jumped." he says. Once he gets the target lock, he fires on Epsilon 3 and as he fires, the TIE flies right into the line of fire. He watches as the shields look like they went out but it's still flying, it has to go down.
It's a zig zag, zoom that ALMOST escapes the hit. Zan mumbles though, even as her shields take the energy, protecting the delicate hunk of metal she's in. << Ono is repairing, I think. Maybe that's what that incessant babble means?>> Zan tries, and then she adds, << Moving to the barge, acquiring lock. >> That said, she makes good on her comment, fingers darting across her controls, as she punches the fighter forward.
Rogue's objective the Interdictor barge looms large while they whittle away at the defending TIES. The TIES stay in the fight but are perceptibly weakening. Jax mortally wounds the Raider, leaving it leaking atmosphere under its intact shields. <<"This is Rogue Leader to designation unknown Corvette. Please tender your surrender. We will aid any personnel abandoning ship or remaining on board.">> "Fiver, keep working on those shields," she mutters. Fiver disdainfully whistles back and goes about its repairs. <<"Let's get these TIEs finished, Rogue and take the Barge out of commission.">>
This time, Crash is in the swing of things. He has the rhythm down, and the music going. "That's right it's me here." he says as he pushes his stick forward, dropping his fighter out of the firing line of the heavy guns... and then twisting into a snap roll left to avoid the incoming fire from the TIE dead ahead. "Hah!" he calls out loud. Not over comms of course.. all of this evasiveness gives him little time to draw a bead, and his own return fire as he pursues Epsilon-2 is sporadic and not well aimed.
Jax breaks away from the Raider and tries to target Tie 5. The Corellian takes a shot at the Tie and it zigs and zags perfectly. Exine laughs, "Yeah I know don't get cocky."
David frantically reroutes power through his craft, though he's forced to delegate this task to his astromech droid before too long. "You do it, I'll try and make sure the shields don't take any more hits. Just get those numbers back up." he instructs, tapping the display. Taking into account that rear-facing blaster cannon, David weaves in his pursuit of the Special Forces TIE, holding off on returning fire until he's certain he'll get a hit. When he does, the shields on the rear flare up brightly and then fizzle out. <<"That's the shields gone on that TIE!">> he reports, keeping on it in the same duck-and-weave pursuit pattern.
Whirling through a stream of fire spat from the previously-thought-fleeing TIE Five, Callax is about to go back and end the little bastard for good before David swoops in to punch it good. << Right, then, >> they say, << This is Ten, Bombers. Joining you in the dance of your people - torpedo lock active, and on your mark. Let's celebrate with proper fireworks, shall we? >>
Zan's torpedo lock is solid even though she takes a small hit to the shields again. "What? Well, repair faster then, Ono, if they're damaging the shields back to where you just repaired from." What else can she say? She's busy flying and shooting, so she's got no time to repair. She aims straight at that barge, and when her reticule goes green, she lets both torpedos fly. The hit the shields, and the energy sizzles as they explode, not harming the ship but providing a light show. She spins her ship, flying around to try another run at the barge.
Rogue 2 isn't having a good day, but still it's keeping the enemy TIEs harried and off the others. As Rogue 2 streaks in going after Epsilon 3, the shots go wide missing the enemy completely as the TIE evades. A slight bit of annoyance race through Karas but he pushes it aside, he can't allow it to get to him.
A faint voice comes over a general hailing frequency, <<"This is the Raider Corvette Vindication. We are standing down but will take care of our own.">> Simultaneously, what is left of the TIE squadron starts to go evasive. <<"This is Rogue Leader, great going, all of you. Let's convince them that Interdictors don't belong here!">>
The TIE's no longer a threat, Crash banks about and eases off of his throttle a bit as he points his nose and targeting sensors towards the barge. Rolling his neck, he activates the targeting computer. "Come on baby." he says softly, fingers drumming a console to the beat of his music.
When the TIEs turn tail and head back to their ships, David slows his X-Wing down. He didn't bring a bomber, after all, and it's not like him to shoot anyone in the back who's communicated a retreat publicly. <<"So.. that Interdictor, right?">> he comms, moving the fighter in its direction, scanners running to find a weak spot, a fault in its armor, anything that could chain react into an accomplished mission.
Jax was starting to go on a strafing run on the barge. "Exine see if we can determine if we can slip the shield on that Barge?" He says as his shots hit but causes the crackle of the shields for a moment.
Seeing the turret traversing his way, Crash almost rolls his eyes. "Come on guys. Make it a challenge already." he says in the privacy of his own cockpit as he fires a thruster burst to evade the aim and launches two missiles at the barge as he does so.
With a unit of crosses at their back, the X that is Rogue Ten starts off the bombing run by releasing a pair of brilliant blue-sheathed warheads into the barge's dorsal side; striking the shields still, the explosions nonetheless make their mark toward collapsing the barge's defensive fields. << Ten, solid hit, >> they report. << Coming back around for another. >>
Missiles away! Crash peels off and goes into a perimeter patrol... looking outward in case of more TIE's showing up. They have hyperdrives now. And the light of the exploding barge illuminates his cockpit, the bubble canopy making it easy for him to look over and see the kaboom. There is a moment where he is all grins. Then he recalls how many crew must have been aboard.. But his smile remains mostly. <"Great job guys."> he says as he starts calculating the jump home.
Zan fires her lasers at the barge, once her missiles are gone. She continues to try to kill it, intent on the mission goal. << Mission accomplished? >> she asks, as she zips around, prepared to run again at the ship, until it's either dead of flees. This time, it ends up dead, and that's not a bad thing. << Mission accomplished. >> There's a quiet to her voice with that, a confidence, and serenity. << Well done, everyone. >>
The B-Wings lumber into position, dropping their payloads onto the Barge rendered shieldless by the Squadron's combined efforts. Lasers flash from the fighters ablating metal from the now defenseless hull. Karas finished off the shields letting the bombers demolish the hull, which breaks apart in sullen flashes of red under the bombardment. Grinning fiercely, Tallie fist pumps as her voice crackles over coms, <<"Rogue, they will not want to see us coming! Wonderful job! Let's go home!">>
Unlike young master Crash, Callax gives not one whit about the lives serving aboard the barge - making the other guy die for their country is basically what they do. << This is Ten, >> Callax calls over comms. << Destruction of target acknowledged, Lead. Ready to depart. >> Really, /some/ empathy is probably knocking around in that genderfluid shell of theirs, but it certainly doesn't surface in the moment. Rogue Ten banks clear and escorts its cruciform charges away from the carnage toward jumping distance, and to a warm bed and hot food awaiting them.
