Log:Rogue Squadron: The Spinara Spin

Rogue deploys to take out some air defense turrets

OOC Date: August 08, 2020
Location: Carida, Spinara Plateau
Participants: Tallissan Lintra, Elrych Cometburn, Nova Korell, Crash Tommaz, Jax Greystorm, Callax Dalso, Poe Dameron, New Republic

Aboard the carriers of the New Republic Fleet engaged in the siege of Carida, life has become a series of brief downtimes and insane scrambles. Pilots who are not involved in combat are generally trying to find whatever rack time they can get, or wolf down some rations in an attempt to refuel their biological reactors.

Into such a brief respite comes the howls of alert klaxons, and over the carrier's speakers come the words, "Rogue Squadron Pilots. Make for your fighters. This is not a drill. Rogue squadron Pilots make for your fighters, this is not a drill."

Pilots scramble, spluttering awake from brief naps, racing for flight suits wearing naught but a towel and soap, or any other last-second details, and the elite squadron launches in haste.

A few minutes later, they are assembled and being given an emergency mission... no time to plan, detail targets, or whatnot. The only time to race in and take out a target before that target takes out more of the fleet.

The Academy turbolaser is putting a severe brake on New Republic Fleet maneuvers around Carida. The constant threat of fire from the colossal weapon has marked it as a priority target. The turbolaser emplacement lies like a cavity in the jagged teeth of the mountains surrounding the Spinara Plateau - an extension of the Carida Military Academy.

The squadron enters the atmosphere 100 kilometers from their objective giving every appearance of flying to another military target. Dropping low, they run a dangerous zig-zag course under the radar through the dagger-like mountains. The surprise attack gives them a few precious moments before fighters can be scrambled to add more firepower to the turbolasers protection.

Rogue Squadron's objective is to demolish the turbolaser protected by four quad lasers atop gun towers placed at the compass points around the powerful weapon before the TIE squadron tasked with protecting it arrives.

<<"Rogues, this is Rogue Leader. Objectives are dead ahead.. lock your S-foils to attack position and establish locks quickly. We've got one shot at this before the parade gets here, SO MAKE EVERY SHOT COUNT. Check in when you have your lock!">> Poe's craft is moving at supersonic speed, slowing only when the S-foils opened, and even then, not by much. BB-8 can be seen in the fighter's droid socket ducking low briefly then tilting its head.

Crash was one of those who was in the shower. His mad dash from the refresher to his bunk to grab his flight suit, and then to the hangar where fortunately, his Astromech had already been loaded into the Rogue-12 X-Wing and had the ship prepped and ready to go... okay, that is a reason to use the X-Wing over the A-Wing. But even while climbing the ladder into his fighter, Crash was still stuffing one arm into the sleeve of his flight suit.

And he was still damp on his skin and hair. In fact, he has a few drops of water flowing down his face under his helmet as he guides his X-Wing into space, and angles sharply to join with the rest of the squadron.

And then.. dropping down out of space into the atmo. His S-Foils are deployed, and he presses his throttle forward full even as he says, "Okay Demo. We are blowing up a -giant- turbolaser. Is that a big enough boom?" to which, the droid warbles happily, almost sounding... dreamy. And then... over comms, the tunes he keeps playing any time there is a fight can be heard in the background. Something instrumental and with a good beat, but nothing super hard. <<Rogue Twelve. Copy.>> he says as he raises shields and checks the power readout on his weapons. He activates the lasers, and prepares to engage the anti-fighter defenses to enable others to torpedo the big cannon... <<Rogue Twelve, ready to engage defenses.>> he adds.

Elrych swings into tight formation with the rest of the rogues. Rogue four is the E-wing version for this mission, the power a little bit dialed back to keep up with the T-85s and what ever else the CDF Squadron decided to field for this mission. He switches over to double front shields. A slow and sultry instramental is the backdrop for this engagment. <<"Rogue Four here... going after the turrets first to give us some breathing room.">> He calls before hand, but things change and can in a matter of seconds. He was ready for anything. Taking a deep breath, The Jedi reaches out to the Living Force, letting it flow through him.

Jax was meditating on his bunk when the claxton sounds off and the voice on the P.A. calls Rogue Squadron into service. He sides to the floor grabbing his comlink. "Exine, Please report to Rogue 9. We're needed again." There some back talk from the droid. "I don't care. Grab your winnings and go. The less I know the better." Jax says as he's already at his locker pulling on his flight suit and gearing up. He reaches up taking the holocapture of Sesti sticking it his flight suits right breast pocket.

Somewhere where on the hanger near the troop transports a game of sabback was being played or was being played as Exine was gathered around with a rookie pilot and some technicians. The little droid had just played an Idiots array when the claxtons go off and Jax's on the com link. The droid dropping the cards and snatching up the pot and making a run for Rogue 9. One of the technicians watches him go, "Alright whose bright idea was it to let a droid play with us?"

Jax and Exine both unite as they go running towards Rogue 9. Jax climbing the ladder and into the cockpit as Exine's loaded in the back. The pair starting up the X-wing like they've been doing this for years. The whine of repulsor engines as the fighter rises and speeds into space.

At Poe's order's Jax locks the X-wing s-foils into attack position. He acquires a target lock on one of the Anti-Air guns, <Rogue 9. I'm going for anti-air gun three.>

It's not just any turbolaser, of course - it's a /planetary/ turbolaser. Surface to orbital. Effing. Giant. And Callax, busy as they've been in the past little while, is never going to turn down a chance to tear down something like /that/. Descending from on high with the rest of the squadron, Callax checks shields and systems after breaching the atmosphere, and prepares to throw down. << Ten copies, Leader, >> Callax replies over comms, business as always when on mission - pulling the release to open the ship's wings, the drag serves to pull Black Ten back hard, shocking even more adrenaline into the pilot's system. << Foils open and guns are hot. Preparing for attack run. >> Gloved hands grip the yoke, and Callax lets out a low, slow breath.

"Babo, darling," the say over the intercom to the purple-domed astromech socketed farther back of the fuselage. "Get a torpedo lock on that turbolaser, and keep it held." An affirmative chirrup from the droid is their answer. "Me and you both, darling," Callax says in reply, eyeing the monitor with the text readout of Babo's reply. "Me and you both."

<<"Rogue 8 reporting, I love surprise attacks, don't you?">> David Ironside reports in, the motor-mouth. <<"Picking up the rear, if that's where you want me.">> He slows down as the S-foils part midway through the wing, as designed by Incom. <<"S-foils opened, weapons ready, point me somewhere.">> he adds, raising a hand to tap a knuckle on the rear window of his canopy. "You good and comfortable there, Ones? Because it's about to get.. less so." It's not much of an action hero catch phrase but there's plenty of time to work on those.

"Crop dusting, I swear Fiver, this is like crop dusting but up in the mountains." Fiver whistles sarcastically and updates the targeting screen over the satellite picture they had been working on. <<Copy, Rogue Leader. We are all in and will commence firing on the emplacements. I will target 4-west.">> She adjusts the white scarf knotted at the neck of her flight suits, tightens her gloved hand on the throttle and angles in toward the target.

<<"Rogue Leader has the northern laser. If it doesn't go down, someone follow up on it!">> Poe spins his craft, taking a graceful dive toward the target. While the fighter shakes, it's relatively quiet inside the cockpit. Poe reaches out, disengaging the targeting computer only after releasing a pair of purple-colored proton torpedoes.

The impact occurs well after Rogue Leader (the T-85) engages its afterburner and blasts back into the sky. "Wide scan range, buddy. Look for those fighters!" Poe angles high to get a good view of their objective.

Regardless, the proper way to do things is to have a wingman follow in and follow up. So Crash arrows in, following on Poe's wing... mostly because this is a mad dash and a scramble. Organization is a bit loose right now.. so his own lasers are firing even before Poe -finishes- the pass... following up just in case it is needed.

The explosion of the gun emplacement makes R2-C4 wable excitedly.... on the screen, the translation of his warbling is simple. BOOM!

<<"Four's got the south side, Lead...">> Elrych proclaims over the Squadron comms, his music echoing in the background. The Jizz tune has picked up it's pace just as he swings his E-Wing to the south and makes a devistating run on the Quad turret in the tower there. All three of his heavy cannons smash into the target with crimson death!

Nova noses down, following the E-Wing into the target zone. It looks like they've caught the gunners sleeping: None of the emplacements have fired even one shot! <They're dozy, guys! Hit 'em while we have the chance!>

Following up on Elrych's attack run, she tags the quad-laser emplacement with two fire-linked lasers, knocking out the rest of it. <Rogue Eleven,> she calls as she soars up and away from the burning mass of metal, <scratch one!>

Gun 3 goes up and Exine quips. "Alright I'll find a different target. You won at cards didn't you? SInce your being cocky." <Rogue 9 adjusting target to Gun 4.> THen Jax pulls a trigger and straffes gun four. Leaving the majority of it a hulking mess. <Gun 4 is hurting. Don't bet they'll be dozing for long. The clowns will be showing up soon.>

Meanwhile Ten follows Nine, Callax following mathematical order as they prepare a salvo for the eastern tower; Jax's fighter tears up the emplacement just fine, then fires a salvo after it. Red light slashes through the air, shearing durasteel and permacite. << Ten here, >> Callax says over comms. << Eastern empacement at critical damage. >>

"They'll finish it up behind us, Babo," Callax says to the droid through the intercom. "Get ready to hit that turbolaser. >>

David smiles and links up with Rogue Seven, as he's taken to doing with Rogue Squadron. <<"Following your lead, Seven, to West. Four.">> he notes his intent to his wing leader, seeing the smoking and, well, barely-functional at this point emplacement in front of him. "Not yet.. not yet.." he tells himself, before slamming the base of the remaining tower with blaster bolts, his velocity raising the points of impact to the business end of the gun tower, which first seemingly deactivates, before ripping itself apart with explosions a moment later. <<"That's the emplacement, Lead.">> David reports.

The ruse for coming in low worked for all of ten minutes. Firing in concert on the laser emplacements, each of the pilots takes one of the emplacements, finishing them off in record time. Below ground crews scramble to get a shot in but have no time to protect the Turbolaser, which is their main target.

A squadron of TIE/sf has been scrambled. They have blood in mind as payback for the decimation of Kappa Squadron not twenty-four hours ago.

<<"We made that look too easy, Rogues. Let's get the Turbolaser.">> Tallie's voice crackles over coms.

<<"..and here comes the parade.">> Poe announces, adopting an evasive pattern that sees him through the initial interception. Poe is close enough to recognize that Crash had both followed him in and took a spot as his wingman. Without a second thought, he falls in behind Mr. Tommaz and gives his pursuer something else to consider. <<"Got him off you, Mynock.">> His voice robotic over their encrypted channel. <<"Anyone got a bead on that big cannon. If not, I'll start to hammer it.">>

Lasers blasting against his shields, Crash says, "Demo. Start getting those shields back." even as he activates his targeting computer and begins acquiring missile lock. Okay, torpedo lock. He needs to keep the fighter pointed mostly towards the big cannon. Fortunately, it -is- huge, and he's aiming at the center of the cannon so that if he is forced to evade, he'd be able to do so without losing missile lock, hopefully.

Elrych Cometburn twirls his agile ewing out from under green pances of laser blasts from yhe incomming TIE/sfs. He saw it coming a mile away, but not because of the force. It was sheer skill and combat experiance. He lines up on the yurbo laser switching to torps.

Jax goes zipping through the dog fight as Delta 5 just can't get a lock on him, <Like I said parade of clowns.> He says as he continues to lead Delta 5 on a merry chase. His X-wing outflying the more agile Tie fighter as it whines behind him. It's shots falling short. Then Delta 4 comes up in his sights. Jax pulls the trigger and strips the shields off the tie fighter. <Moonbeam, I evened things up for you. Gave 'em something to consider.> Then pulls back on his stick to gain altitude. The little R2 unit behind him chirping, "Did you just say Jax Greystorm, muh man? I told you I just was rusty."

Banking through the air, Callax dances through the bolts of light that fall like driving rain in all directions - ever seeking the goal, the mission objective. << This is Ten, >> they call, voice made mechanical and tinny through ecryption. << Torpedoes away! >> Thumbs come down on the torpedo triggers, sending a pair of particle-sheathed warheads hurtling toward the turbolaser assembly at high speed; they impact midling along the past, shredding armor plating and structural ribbing in a fountain of boiling flame.

<< Positive impact, >> Callax calls in reply, smiling faintly to themselves as they bring the ship around for another pass. << Heavy damage indicated. Now preparing for another strike. >>

<<"I don't care for clowns.">> David comments, playing chicken with a TIE that comes -right- for him, the two clearly intent on waiting for the last second to see who pulls out. It turns out to be David, though, honestly, it's all part of the plan. With a wide corkscrew maneuver he goes around the TIE, cutting the throttle as he pulls the stick back to fling his fighter ahead as it turns on its own axis. As soon as the TIE is back in front of the X-Wing, David pushes the throttle in again, giving chase while shooting. The spectacular (let's be honest) maneuver has the TIE pilot entirely by surprise, though the subsequent explosion means the pilot did not have to live with his shame for long. A Kappa Ace, he isn't.

The Turbolaser receives loving attention from Callax, soon to be followed by other torpedos. Delta and Rogue begin to tangle. Rogue Eight taking out his opponent, Delta Seven, in one fusillade. Jax damages Delta Four, which stays in the fight.

Tallie flies in low then flips the X-Wing on its side to give the quad lasers less of a target to fire from the guns below. The other Rogue pilots are so spot on that the quad laser cannons are mute. "Fiver put me Delta Eight." The pilot she selected is a smart one and evades her fire. She runs after him, keeping a close eye on Crash and Nova.

Poe takes a smashing hit that tears him from a path toward the Main cannon. Unable to contribute to the overall mission, Poe must handle the attention he's earned first. Glancing over his shoulder first, Poe sees that he has two pursuing (this realization came more from the sensor readout than what he saw.)

"Alright buddy, work your magic." Poe squeezes the trigger slapping Delta Two with another hit that causes their shields to shimmer. It's not quite down yet, but Poe has to consider the Ace on his tail, and the target ahead of him too. He's thankful the other Rogues are taking care of the objective though.

<<Rogue Twelve. Fox One!>> calls out Crash over the comms. His torpedo arrows away just before he pulls his nose up and to the right. The torpedo strikes the center of the damaged Turbolaser cannon, and the whole thing erupts in a fireball. Over the comms, there are two cries of triumph. One from a red-headed kid and another from his explosives-addicted droid. That's a big kaboom!

Then the droid goes to work on the shields and Crash prepares for the rest of the dogfighting.

Elrych Cometburn is about to fire as his tone is green and loud, but the secondary explosions from crash and callaxs yorps cause h8m to quickly switch back to lasers. He turns abruptly, pulling some untense g's, water vapor plooming as his air break engages. As he right, he fires on Delta three but the quick craft evadea.

Jax was twisting and turning as he had both Delta 8 & 9 on him. "Thanks for noticing Exine. You see who elese is noticing." Jax says as he dodges the paire of fighter taking a shot before pulling off a talon roll to come around jousting Delta 9 scoring a glancing hit as Jax's forced to break off. <Hey Pretty Boy, MIssion accomplished? Mynock did make it go boom. We sticking around to play or we getting out of here?>

Climbing high, Callax prepares to execute a loop and drop another pair of torpedoes on the turbolaser - but as they reach the height of the loop and begin to descend, the structure collapses in a chain of incandescent explosions. Through the carnage, Callax espies Nova's fighter, dogging Four and being dogged in turn by Six; plummeting down toward the weaving fighters, Callax targets Nova's tailing ship and executes a smooth salvo into it, right between the wings. It explodes, one wing spinning away while the remainder of the hull and still-attached wing hurtles like a comet into the rocks below.

<< Ten reporting, >> Callax intones over comms. << Splash Six. Ranging new target. >>

<<"Splash one!">> David calls out, moving his fighter out of the way of incoming fire and watching it pass between the s-foils on one side. <<"Close call, but they missed me.">> he confirms. Taking his fighter out of the way for a moment, he U-turns back into it with a target now lined up. His finger tightens on the trigger, and the pilot watches his shots absorbed by the TIE's shielding array. <<"Got some hits, they're holding though.">> he reports, fixing on his target and staying in pursuit.

Delta Squadron is seeing red after the decimation of their top flight squadron by Rogue. Rogue hammers them, having flown against them at uneven odds. Top efforts on all of Rogue's part begins to whittle them down. Half of the squadron facing them are damaged. One last ditch effort might see the last of the TIE's, if not, another squadron risks being scrambled in that will put Rogue to flight.

Poe pulls back on the speed, angling his nose up slightly in a sudden 'stop' that prompts Delta Leader to storm passed him. Growling out loud, and against the atmospheric G-forces, Poe forces the craft forward again. "AHHHHHH!"

He's set firmly against his seat then, and looks down at the targeting computer to align a series of shots. Delta Leader is turned to slag in the subsequent moments and Poe slides past the destroyed fighter before it explodes completely to engage Delta 2. Another solid hit!

<<"A good point,">> Poe tones back. <<"Get your parting shots in, and let's get a vector out of this sector. No sense in risking anymore than we have to.">> Poe breaks off Delta 2, spinning and leveling to close his S-foils to enter a supersonic state and heightened speed!

The exploding cannon behind him, Crash is excited. He turns, banks, and pulls in on Poe's wing once more. As he gets there, the first TIE dies, and Poe's fire moves on to the next one.. which Crash -also- fires on. Trying to support the wing and squadron leader. Mostly just trying to be a team player. But his shots go a bit wide in his excitement.

Elrych's agressive chase of Delta 3 is paying off. He's keeping up with every turn the TIE/sf makes, as if he can read the fighters movements before they happy. Up and down, though a patch of clouds, and twisting around and around. The Jedi lines up the perfect shot, his etical toning joy and blinking green. "Got you now, nerf herder."

There was nothing wrong with being a herder of bovines. Especially to a Jedi. It was a humble career for humble people made happy by the simpler things in life. Elrych was not one of those people despite his occupation. He fingered the trigger on his stick. Heavy laser bolt lance out and strike the TIE, ripping through the shields and eating into the hull. Perhaps the metal glowed a bit before one of the panels sparked and tore off. The TIE started to smoke heavily, a blaze from the rear. It lost altitude and started to spin as the repulsor lifts and sublight engines failed. Down it went into the ground, a firey wreck. <<"Splash Delta 3.">>

Lacking a better target, Nova back up Poe on Delta Two. Three of her shots smash into the TIE's ball cockpit, and the ship begins trailing smoke. A solid hit at last! And Jammer whistles in triumph. The deflector screens are beginning to creep back up, if slowly.

And it's time to get out of there. <Suggest we go out the way we came in, Lead. TIEs aren't known for flying well in atmo,> she coms. <Might add a little to their repair bills and get away at the same time.>

Jax had been dogged by Eight and Nine for what seemed like hours. Exine complained, "I didn't let that one get close. Look I know. Trust me." Jax says as he lets Delta 9 over shoot him and strips the shield off Delta 9 and causes it to smoke a bit, "Break off."

Rogue has convinced Delta to leave the battle. With Delta One gone and over half of their other pilots downed, there is a hurried consultation among them. TIE SF's don't grow on trees, no matter what command says, so Delta Eight convinces the others that it is time for them to withdraw. The TIES break apart unwilling to give targets to the rapacious Rogue pilots.

Tallie uncharacteristically yells over coms, <<"Woo. I want you to look at these guys giving it up. We going to chase them or what?">>