Log:Rogue Squadron: Unbent and Unbroken

Rogues arrive to defend an evacuating city

OOC Date: August 22, 2020
Location: Tatha City, Carida
Participants: Jessika Pava, Tallissan Lintra, Callax Dalso, Crash Tommaz, David Ironside, Jax Greystorm, Elrych Cometburn, Karas Darkwing, Zandra naMuriel, Poe Dameron

It's noon in this region of Carida, and the city of Tatha is under attack by the ruthless FO Lesh Squadron. They swoop around the city, targeting formidable defense points to further open the town to invasion from the ground.

Tatha city was no particular jewel, and it held little strategic value in the grand scheme of the war. What it did have was innocent civilians. Innocent civilians caught in the middle of two warring factions. Sure, they aligned their beliefs with that of the Republic, but was that enough to condemn them to the constant bombing and pave-low treatment they received from Lesh Squadron?

It's noon, with overcast skies and rough air as Rogue Squadron makes their approach toward Tatha. The city is in view, and black towers of smoke rise up from various areas where the bombing attacks have been the worst. Citizens of this town hide behind their law enforcement who try to hold off the invasion of the city long enough for the innocents to load up on transports and escape. Meanwhile, First Order forces are moving in, with recon teams pinpointing defense locations within the city for Lesh Squadron to blow up.

This bombardment must stop.

<<"Rogues, this is Poe. Give me a comm check and let's get into intercept formation. Our primary mission is to smash Lesh Squadron. When we've wiped them out, we'll need to let the local nationals know they can take off. It'll be a matter of escorting them at that point.">>

A pending Dogfight and then an escourt mission. There was nothing better suited for an E-Wing than such. Faster than a T-85 and with a powerful payload of weaponry Elrych rose into formation with the rest of Rogue Squadron. His music played in the back ground of his comm chatter per usual, <<"Rogue Four here... I'm wait...">> There's a squint through the canopy as he makes out the tiny formation of Lesh Squadron. <<"Ah Kriff, a damn silencer in their lead. Eggsy, mark it if you can. For the others.">> His droid werbles back in afffirmative.

Nothing gets Jessika Pava's blood riled up like bullies, and the biggest bullies of all are tyrants who prey on the innocent. The hatred of what's unfolding before her is simmering deep in her veins, but Jessika focuses on being the professional she's supposed to be. Her squadron doesn't need her hot-headed and unfocused, and Jessika doesn't need it, either. Letting her anger get the best of her will only lead to mistakes. Streaking towards the on-going bombing, Jessika says nothing to Ailee. Nothing needs to be said. All that's required right now is that she maneuver her snubfighter into formation and broadcast over the net like has been ordered. <"Rogue Three, checking in."> She's already spotted the Silencer Elrych mentions. <"Three confirms the Silencer.">

Except for maybe an A-Wing. Even faster. Designed for interception and dogfighting. The lasers that can rotate up and down also help. Crash drops into position off of Tallie's left wingtip. "Twelve, on Seven's wing like a Mynock." he says with a grin on his face as he preps his playlist. The universe equivalent of guitar rock getting prepared to roll through his ears to get him into the rhythm of the dogfight to come. His throttle is around seventy-five percent because... he doesn't want to -surge- forward alone. He's learned his lesson about that.

<"Rogue Leader, Rogue Seven on your six in intercept formation"> Commander Lintra eases the throttle back, keeping perfect alignment with the flight. Edging the T-85 over to starboard, they swoop into the city.

"Fiver, keep a sharp eye out for bogies, I want to shoot these dogs down. And..." Elrych's voice comes over coms, "There they are!" <"Copy that Rogue Four.">>

<<Copy that Rogue Leader.>> it's odd saying that and honestly it was a bit of a thrill. Still there is a job to do and now here they are. Karas didn't care for bullies either and as they come in through the atmosphere he begins looking around, his scanners aren't picking up anything, but Spark his astromech droid is assisting in looking for trouble.

Jax's X-wing roars along the landscape in formation with the Rest of Rogue Squadron. His X-wing's S-foil already locked into the attack position. <Rogue Nine, reporting in.> He broadcasts across the squadron channel. He's forgotten his good luck charm for a moment, then he's digging into one of the pockets of his Flight suit, retreiving a holocapture of his wife. Then he plasters it to the console. "Wait, what did they say?" He asks the droid with him. "A silencer in the lead?" Jax sighs, "Arlight, keep it tracked. We're here to do work not be a glory hog. So if we get a shot we're taking it, if not lets make sure we clear out the rest of Lesh Squadron."

<<"Rogue Eight, checking in. All systems go.">> David's voice comes in on comms, the X-Wing already set up for combat, even though he himself doesn't see the TIE squadron. It's cool, the Rogues wouldn't lie to eachother, right? Surely there's TIEs there! With his droid, Ones, in the astromech socket behind him, David slides right into that intercept formation behind Rogue Seven.

<<And 6 is also here.>> The other A wing, cause Zan is definitely used to flying one of these. She's in position, pretending to be slow, as she stays in formation and keeps with the rest of the squad. For now. she takes a deep breath, mentally relaxing and reaching for the Force before she nods her head once. << Ready to go. >>

Taking up a rear position in the formation, Callax has brought the mighty Ten once more - sitting quietly in the cockpit, having already given orders to Babo to make with the shield repair. << This is Ten, Leader, >> Callax intones over the line, choppy and robotic thanks to encryption. << Situation acknowledged. Guns charged and shields ready, over. >>

Elrych's words reach them, and settle in like lead. A Silencer. An elite? A sorceror? That ship will need to go down fast.

<<"Looks like they're popping up on sensors now. Good catch, Elrock and Testor.-- Set S-foils to attack position, and let's clear the way here.">> Poe says, pulling back on his stick to angle the X-Wing up. It's time to engage. <<"Call your targets and cover each other. This could turn upside down in a second.">>

Sure enough, a TIE Silencer rises to the occasion, followed closely by 4 TIE/sf and 7 TIE/fo after them. All TIEs scream toward Rogue Squadron as speeds begin to increase toward breaking that supersonic barrier.

Elrych Cometburn turns yowards one of the TIE/sf that are forming up in lesh squadron, "Lets leave the Silence to the others this time. They need to learn how to tangle with it." What a jerk. He targets L2, getting a green tone as he bears down, heavy canon smashing hard into the shields.

Rogue Three sets its s-foils into attack position, and the bright fusial engines lose some of their gleam because Jessika shaves off some of the speed. They approach from on high, because height is the advantage. Once they're in position, Jessika drops her nose to gain crucial inertia and speed. The sky streaking by her transparisteel viewports don't register. She has eyes for nothing but the TIE/sf being tracked by the helmet mounted cueing system superimposed over her flight helmet's yellow visor. With a reticle lead on the enemy target, Jessika depresses her stick's weapons switch. The laser cannon fire misses her target, and her astromech droid's head quickly rotates around to begin tracking and following the TIE after their merge.

<"Silencer?"> asks Crash. He turns and sees Elrych's E-Wing... a distinctive fighter for sure, peel off towards a target. <"Gonna go back up El there."> he says into his comm to Tallie before winging up and over and arrowing in towards the same TIE being targeted by the heavy cannons. His own lasers fire in rapid fire staccato bursts, one clipping the shields of the TIE. Then he spins his fighter and falls in on Elrych's wing. <"I'm with you Four. On your wing."> he says as he waggles his own wings.

As targets are being called, Rogue 2 chimes in as well stating, << I got Lesh 5.>> he says into his comms. Rogue 2's S-foils seperate into it's famous X configuration. Karas fees power into his engines and dial down his inertial compensators so that he doesn't feel too much of the push as his fighter speeds up into attack speed. He notices the TIE/sf tries to move into evasivie manuevers, but Rogue 2 is able to keep up with the enemy fighter. He get's a solid tone and Rogue fires it's explosive red energy lances, which only misses as Lesh 5 dives. Rogue 2 rolls and dives keeping up with the enemy TIE.

Tallie imagines the parents hunkered down with their children in shelters and basements as the scream of fighters fills the sky. If it is like other conflicts she's seen, the poorest remain, the wealthy having the means to travel. If all goes well there won't be collateral damage. She trims the S-foils, the beep of the targeting computer sounding loud in the cockpit as she closes with the first target of the day. Lasers greet Lesh Four, lighting it up three times before they pull off to come around.

Exine beeps an affirmative. Then Lesh 3 one of the Tie/SF comes up into Jax's arch, <Nine on 3.> The cross hairs turn gold and Exine pings and Jax pulls on the trigger firing at the Tie fighter. The Tie doding him effortlessly, <No love on Three.> Exine snickers behind him.

No love for any doofus flying a TIE. The only one with any sense are the ones flying the old Interceptors and Silencers, and that's only the smallest amount of sense with their front-facing viewports. Adding his call to the communications, David quickly selects Lesh 12, deliberately leaving the Silencer for whoever has stronger guns. From his point of view, taking out the lower ranks would work just as well as taking out the leader, so why not do both, with several of the Rogues already going for the TIE/sf ranks. Sadly, his initial attack is dodged. <<"No hit, staying on target.">> he reports.

Zan drops her throttle down, and her A wing darts forward. << Violet here, targetting Lesh 6. >> she calls, picking her target. It's a bit crazy as the groups intertwine, fighters zigging and zagging every which way. Her peppy fighter zooms in, and she takes some shots at her opposite, Lesh 6 - though she misses the fighter she's shooting at. There's a flip turn and she's heading back in, the high speed still making her smile. << and I think I need more target practice. Or else the guns on this ship are really off. >> At least she doesn't have a droid laughing at her.

The TIEs coming in are going to need thinning, and there are far better pilots than they in the air - Callax targets one of the lesser ones, reasoning that they'll dog-pack someone sooner than later, reasoning that the aces of aces can take out the Silencer and its guard as need be. << Rogue Ten going for Lesh Eleven, >> Callax intones over comms, angling the nose of the fighter to allow for a favorable angle of attack - and lets fly with a burst of angry crimson streamers that obliterate the TIE's defenses and bore holes through the ship's superstructure. In an instant the ship is reduced to being held together by prayer and adrenaline, and banks to go evasive.

<< Target heavily damaged, possibly breaking to flee, >> Callax informs the group. << Moving to next target. >>

The skirmish begins just outside the city limits, turning into a hornet's nest of aerial attack patterns and filled with the noise of overclocked engines. Cannons discharge in each direction, misses impacting the ground or continuing on through the air. Both squadrons slug at one another and the battle seems even for now as Lesh Squadron gives as good as they take.

Poe attempts a fight with the Silencer, missing barely and paying for it. The Silencer moves out of his sight just as a TIE/fo centers on his stern and fires into his shields rocking his ship. "Yeah, yeah.. I see em!" He yells dipping low and flying just evasive enough to avoid the Silencer that joins in on the chase. <<"Rogue Leader targeted Lesh Leader, but I have two of them on me now!">> He relays as BB-8 ducks into its socket to work his magic.

Music making him roll his hips in his pilot's chair, Crash follows Elrych through his attack run, lining up a shot on Lesh 12 just in case. But when Elrych takes the fighter out, Crash whoops and says, <"Great shot!"> before he takes a hit to the shields from the rear. He snorts and snap rolls up and over Rogue Four, lining up a double shot on Lesh Four. Once, twice, three times he fires.. the third linked double shot blasting into the fuselage and all but guaranteeing a limping home of the TIE. If it makes it that far.

Elrych chases after Lesh Twelve, executing a complicated barrel roll as he gets the distinct pre cognition that somone is going to shoot gree drek at him. They do, but he's long gone from that position by the time it reaches there. He lines up another shot on the TIE/fo, taring into it with the E-Wings deadly heavy canons. It rips the lighter fighter apart, causing it to spark and light a flame. A thick trail of smoke follows it as it spins out of control into the ground. <<"Splash One, Lead...">>

<"Three is on your six, Lead."> The chaos of the unfolding battle is thick. As usual, the Rogues are fighting an outnumbered fight. The enemy is able to double up in multiple circumstances, meaning at any given time, a number of Rogues are fighting a two to one. It's situations like this that Jessika always seems to find Poe Dameron knee-deep in. There's nothing joking about her tone, though. Rather than re-engaging Lesh Three, Jessika angles in towards the two craft trailing Rogue Leader, her own fighter the target of a series of wide shots, and is quick about snapping off a stitch of laser cannon fire towards Lesh Ten. She's rewarded with a ripple of shields, and is determined to harass either craft until Poe is clear.

Rogue Seven comes in on the Lesh Four with sun full in its face making two direct hits. First one of the vertical wings disintegrates, the TIE/sf wobbling hard as smoke trails behind it. Too low to eject the pilot takes his last flight into the side of a building. A spray of building material blossoms covering the street below it, then Rogue Seven is past the target, pulling into a climb to reengage. <"Splash, Lesh Four. Coming around.">

Rogue 2 tried to keep up with Lesh 5 but it was able to roll and climb. Having loss sight of him, Lesh 5 was able to re-engage him. Karas is a vet and Ace, he rolls through the emerald energy blasts and he climbs and rolls. It takes him a moment, the T-85 goes into a Talon roll and dives down towards Lesh 5, and he unloads rapid fire shots downwards towards Lesh 5 taking out it's shields all in one pass and striking against the Hull of the TIE. No major damage but now the TIE is in trouble.

Rogue Nine roars across the city as he chased by Lesh 9. His x-wing simply out flying Lesh 9 as it tries to shoot. Exine looks back at the enemy fighter. "Yeah I know, I'm not losing him. How do I know it's a him? I don't know. I'm not losing her." Jax says as he trying to use what buildings here as an artificial canyon. He pulls on his flight stick and hits a rudder before sweepign around to come back around in a joust agaisnt Lesh 9. His X-wing canon catching the tie unaware and scoring a solid pair of hits.

With his prior target taken out by Elrych, David wastes no time in pinpointing another one entirely at random. Well. Maybe not entirely. It was right there, being chased by Jax in Rogue 9. <<"Nice shot, Nine, mind if I cut in?">> he comms as he lines his fighter up alongside Jax, not so much waiting for a reply before shooting the fighter. It doesn't explode, for a change, it just stops the iconic screaming noise and plummets down towards Carida to find its rest in a bombed out building that once could've been an orphanage.

Of course Lesh 6 returns the favour, and Zan's shields are up to the task. Mostly. They take a hit, and Zan frowns at it. << Rogue 6, still on Lesh 6 >> It's a dog fight as Zan ducks down, flips the arena by slamming back on the throttle and then hitting it hard, so that she ends up with Lesh 6 in her sights. She fires at it again, and this time she hits with both her cannons. She takes a breath, knowing that she is definitely making an enemy here.

Their first target winging away blown half to Hell, Callax banks right to cover the TIE now targeting his squadronmate. << Rogue Ten targeting Eight, >> they proclaim on comms, pulling back the throttle just a bit to try and get proper gun convergence. But though the shot is solid, the TIE's pilot is wily, and a last-minute roll saves the pilot any trouble.

"Too many of your friends out there to behave like that, darling," Callax mutters to themselves. "Run or die..."

The skirmish is still outside the city, and the fight is beginning to favor Rogue Squadron. Lesh 11 has already tucked tail to run, and Lesh 4, 9, and 12 have already taken one for the team, splashing in brilliant explosions. Lesh Squadron hold their ground, reinforced by the leadership of their ace pilot who is still dip, dive, duck, barrel rolling, and dodging.

Poe follows the Silencer close to the ground, kicking up dirt and dust in their wake. <<"Thanks for the assist, Testor!">> Poe calls, glancing at sensors to see that Rogue Three swept his tail up in a pass. Poe smirks and focuses on his target, smashing its stern with two cannon hits and increasing his speed. "Rekking thing is quick," he laments to himself. BB-8 is all too happy to admit that shields have risen.

<<"Fight's looking good, Rogues. Keep covering each other. Every Lesh fighter down are lives saved.">>

Elrych Cometburn moves on from his downed target, cycling through tye targeting computer until he stops on L2. He yurns tight, pulling some seriius Gs, his engines burning hard in their pink glow. He lines up a shot but the af pilot is good and ducks under the heavy canon fire. Eggs worbles something, "What donyou mean the calibrator is out of wack... recalibrate... tye calibrator? What?"

Rather than chase on Poe's tail the entire time as Rogue Leader engages with Lesh Leader, Jessika peels off when Ten does, and keeps her sights set on the enemy TIE as it banks and jukes away from its commander. They switch through turns, with Jessika constantly adjusting speed so that the TIE can't bleed its own and force her to shoot past, putting her in a detrimental position in the dogfight. The atmospheric combat really puts the strain on her in this situation. Jessika yanks against her harness one way and then the next, breath grunting out and mind trying to keep track of everything while also being beaten up by her cockpit. He's a good pilot, but Jessika is able to not only stay with him, but get her nose out ahead when the pilot spirals towards the ground and she's able flip her fighter over inverted and nose it down. It gives her the opportunity she needs, and she wastes no time in squeezing the trigger to pelt its shields into mere transluscence.

Splitting off, Crash twists his control stick and snap rolls once more... firing at Lesh Ten as he goes, trying to finish the guy off. But that guy must have some serious self preservation instinct, as he manages to evade the stream of full auto fire coming from his A-Wing.

Seeing the target he's been dancing with for the longest time be blown up by Tallie, he smiles a little, <<Alright Rogue 7.>> he says as he breaks, from his target who had fired on him prior but missed. With the chaos in the skies, things were getting crazy, but Rogue 2 streaks on until he comes across Lesh 2. The TIE/fo doesn't see him and he manages to fire on the TIE. Red energy blasts erupts from Rogue 2's laser cannons, they find their mark but the sheilds still hold. Gritting his teeth, Karas keeps on Lesh 2 for now.

< If you want to play, Janitor, Rogue 8. I won't stop you from playing cleanup.> Jax says as breaks off Lesh 9 and letting David claim the kill. Exine grouses a bit about not getting to claim the kill. Jax shakes his head, "It's not about the kill my friend. It's about the mission succeeding." The droid still grumbling as Jax takes aim at Leash 3. The the Corellian lines up a shot firing at Lesh 3. The Tie/SF taking a hard hit but the shields still holding.

David grins at Jax' comment. <<"By your leave, master Jedi.">> he replies, putting on an accent as he waves to Jax in his cockpit and breaks off to find a new target. Janitor. <<"You got a TIE on you, Three, but I brought my mop.">> he comms to Jessika, dropping in at an angle where a miss would not hit Rogue 3, but the accuracy of the attack means there was never a worry for that, and now there's one less TIE in the air too. <<"You're all good, Three, that one's toast.">>

Zan just grins at the banter, though she's quiet, as she concentrates on flying. It's a bit of a challenge, as she gets dinged again, her shields dropping still lower, but holding. She jumps a bit, catching her breath, and then she remembers to breathe. Right. She continues the dog fight, rogue 6 vs lesh 6 and the two are pretty evenly matched. Her next attack is dodged, and she swings around for one more pass.

With Eight broken off from Crash, Callax is forced to perform a hard roll themselves to avoid a stream of green death from Lesh Seven - but as he does, they see Tallie's fighter under duress from the corner of those ever-sharp blue eyes. << This is Ten, >> Callax says, banking clean of Seven's cone of fire and punching the throttle to close with the TIE that just won't quit. << Moving to target Eight. >> A black frown lines their lips as they push the nose of the ship practically into the fighter's engine wash to pour on a solid stream of angry fire into the fighter's rear arc. The fighter's pilot moves their machine with expert care to avoid Callax's attack, but it's shields still take several solid hits, beaten down by a fair measure. << Shields to half, >> they report, << Continuing assault. >> Can't say they weren't warned the first time, after all...

<<"Lesh Leader is slagged,">> Poe calls out just as his shields come back to full power and BB-8 pops up from its socket. As the Silencer explodes against the open field below, Rogue Leader breaks supersonic speed and angles back up. The sudden thrust plants him firmly back against his seat and his craft is led along an arcing loop to get a good view of what was left. <<"Finish up those kills, Rogue and let's get these people out of here!">>

Elrych Cometburn lingures on the edge of the battle for a moment until eggsy says he is done calibratung. Forthwit, the ewing screams back into action, firing down on Lesh 2 with an agressivness that is both daunting and calculating.

<"Didn't need the help, Eight, but thanks for the cover."> The quick quip of gratitude is spoken between one sharp bank and the next, allowing her a moment to speak before her crash harness was pressing in too hard against her diaphragm again. Both her X-Wing and the TIE she veers off towards after the destruction of Ten are heading for the deck, and they both have to level out. She doesn't want to get into a rate fight. The TIE is too fast and maneuvers better. Jessika gains a little bit of extra speed by pulling out of their dive towards the ground just a little bit later, allowing her to snap her nose around towards the enemy target at the consequence of seeing black around the edges of her vision. The pay off isn't worth it, though. Her shots go well wide of the craft.

Chaos is the name of the game. Dogfights are all about reaction times, quick thinking, and killer instinct. Crash leans into it, mouth making little sounds to go along with the music he is playing. Mostly singing (badly) along with the music.

Then he makes a bootleg turn and comes around. Not a loop so much as a quick snap turn and lining up of a target that he had been nowhere near targeting moments ago. The sheer surprise of it makes Lesh six totally forget to evade until it's too late. After a few shots... Crash is peeling away and aiming for a new target, head bopping to the beat.

<<"Even so, frees your six up.">> David comms back to Jessika. He breaks away and before he consciously selects a target, a TIE screams past. "Well then." the pilot mutters to himself as he immediately makes pursuit, shooting a couple of times before realizing the TIE is in fact fleeing. No shots find any target, so for now David turns the fighter back around to the TIEs still posing a threat.

"Fiver, let's take care of Lesh Eight. Callax fixed him up for us, let's take him out of the fight." They climb into a loop and level out behind the TIE/fo that zig zags trying to evade them. Two laser hits ablate metal, shattering part of the cockpit. In space the TIE would be venting air as life support struggled to equalize pressure. Tallie turns to follow giving full range to other fighters to follow or let the pilot run for his life. The mood that the squadron is in tells her that it's not likely that the pilot will get far.

"I'm going to keep going, monitor the other systems and start working on the sheilds and get them back up Spark." he says to his droid. Yeah things have quickly turned against Rogue 2, and he is getting jumped. Laser bolts from one TIE misses but another hits him hard, seeing the Shields flicker as he vectors out of the way, Rogue two is still up. <<Everyone sound off, anyone needing help?>> he calls out on his comms. He sees that none of the Rogues were shot down which was good, he does notice the TIE's running from them.

Zan's concentration on lesh 6 is destroyed, as lesh 6 is. << Thanks for the assist,>> she says, with a wry grin that can't be seen. She takes a moment to try to do some shield repairs, but A wings are notoriously finicky - absolutely terrible for such things, and Zan mumbles under her breath as she fights with it. And loses. "Fine, beautiful, just fine," she tells the A wing. "Engineering will take care of you, when we get back to base." << Rogue 6 - still in one piece. Shields took some damage. >>

As the joust with Lesh 3 continues, Jax finds his shields partially stripped away to just above 50 percent. The droid droid wabbling a complaint out to Jax as it extends an arm out to realign a power converter. The shields start to rise again The Corellian shrugs, <No need to stand on ceremony, Janitor. I'm an initiate and not even a knight.> The Corellian takes another shot at Lesh 3 and the shields of the Tie fail.

Their shields damaged and their leader gone, Lesh Eight is going the way that Eeven had gone - but Callax isn't having it. "And the shame of it all, arling," Callax mutters to themselves, "Is that you probably couldn't have run even if you would've wanted to." Not without things going badly. Psychoprogramming. What a congress of monsters the First Order was.

Callax thumbs the triggers on Ten's guns and their vision is filled with a cloud of flame where the TIE had just been, smoking fragments falling away to the surface. Callax manages to sigh before cueing comms again. << Splash Eight. Moving to new target. >> Not that there aren't many left, they way they're fleeing. The job, it appears, has been done.

<<"Look at 'em run, Rogues. Good fighting. /Damn/ good fighting, haha!">> Poe calls out over their encrypted comms, his voice conveyed robot-like but still clearly him. Rogue Leader levels out over Tatha City and watches what's left of Lesh Squad limp back to their home base. <<"Alright, let's set up a perimeter around the city and prepare for our escort mission.">>-- Poe switches to open comms to intiate talks with the local nationals. <<"Tatha City, this is Rogue Leader. Your skies are clear. We're here to escort you to safety. Please begin your evacuation flights, over.">>

Poe chuckles at BB-8. "That's right, pal. Another day in the office."