Log:Rogue Squadron : Practice Run

Rogue Squadron: Practice Run

OOC Date: July 3,2020
Location: Chandrila Space
Participants: Poe Dameron, Jax Greystorm, Elrych Cometburn, Zandra naMuriel, Callax Dalso, Nova Korell, Crash Tommas, Tallie Lintra

Tallie Lintra reaches forward to flip a switch to emit to all the assembled ships. <"Good afternoon, pilots of the newly reformed Rogue Squadron Civil Defense Force. This is Commander Lintra in Rogue Seven. It's an honor to see both old and new faces in the squadron and an honor to serve with General Poe Dameron in the service of the New Republic.">

<"Most of us are experienced pilots, some of the top pilots in the galaxy are here among us. Individually each of us is strong or has the potential to be strong. Together, unified and working together as a Squadron we are stronger. Team work will keep us alive and victorious.">

<"Today's exercises are the beginning of that team work. We will not be using live weapons, our droids will record laser tags and calculate hits from the number of laser contacts.">

<"If you have questions relay them through general coms.">

Getting the feel for his cockpit that's a bit larger than he is used to, Crash replies into his mic, "Copy Commander. Rogue Twelve ready to go. I'll stick on the wing of whomever is..." And then R2-C4 chirps and on his screen he reads: TURN ON YOUR MIC.

He sighs and rolls his eyes before reaching to activate his comm pickup, "Rogue Twelve. Ready to go." he says before he rolls his neck and mentally melds into his fighter's inner workings, ... I mean sure, he's no force user. But he -feels- a fighter more than piloting it.

In the cockpit of the familiar T-85, Nova takes a deep breath before replying. <Copy, Rogue Seven. Rogue Eleven standing by.> Hearing Crash's transmission, she toggles the com again. <Stick with me, Twelve. We're usually sectioned by numbers.>

Poe Dameron is testing the tension of his glove by pulling tighter. Sitting within the cockpit of Rogue Leader, he observes the familiar controls of the T-85 X Wing. A gentle gesture of his hand flips the flight visor over his eyes, and he initiates the shields for his fightercraft. When Tallie's voice crackles over the comms, Poe is quiet and listening for now. He flexes his hand, getting a grip upon the yoke, and breaths in hard, like a snort, before flipping a switch that initiated a system scan.

Well, well, well. Here they are again.

Wearing a familiar flight suit, cradled in a familiar craft, Callax Dalso finds themselves flying a four-winged reaver once again. It's been almost a year since last Callax flew a T-85, and he's gotten used to the E-wing that had replaced it in his service to Black Squadron...but like a speeder bike unused for long years, the former noble finds themselves quite at home.

<< Acknowledged, Seven, >> they say over the link, ever so calm. << Ten reads green and is ready. Nine, are you with me? >>

Babo whistles softly. Callax flicks a glance at a monitor and smiles. "Yes, darling boy," they say. "I'm happy to be here, too."

Zan isn't so used to an X-Wing, but she's a reasonably good pilot. She wrinkles her nose, and says, << Rogue 5 here. This is different from an A-Wing, but only a little.>> She goes quiet after that, listening to everyone else. She's generally a bit quiet and reserved, so that shouldn't surprise anyone. << Teamwork is definitely a wonderful thing, >> she adds finally, as her fingers go over her controls. The droid with her mutters something, and Zan smiles.

Jax was strapped into the seat of Rogue 9. The R2 unit behind him was chattering so fast that Jax couldn't hardly keep up. "Exine calm down. We're just here to fly. The adventures will come soon." The X-wing currently flying on the wing of Rogue 10. <Rogue nine is green. Sorry Ten, I'm trying to have my R2 unit go through breathing lesons and meditate. I think I may have the first non-breathing enity to hyperventilate over here.> Jax says as he opens his s-foils.

Elrych Cometburn was late to the party. Though his presence is announced by a preamble of a low and funky bass beat over the background of his comm call. <<"Aye... Sorry I'm late sunshine. Rogue Four here and reporting for duty.">>Those Jedi types, always so aloof and chasing off after silly adventures. Heads in the cloud, forgetting important things like Flight training with the nuggets. <<"I'll observer the first round, don't want to make anyone feel bad.">>

<"So, bear with me,"> Tallie announces over coms while behind her Fiver whistles sarcastically.

<"You are going to work in elements: Rogue Leader and Rogue Nine, Rogue Five and Rogue Eleven, Rogue Twelve and Rogue Ten. What I'm looking for here is for you to practice some of the basic flying maneuvers as a team and then you are to be fighting each other first in elements of two and then elements of three. Again, if you have any questions please ask over over general coms.">

Being the new kid in the squadron, Crash is simply -assuming- that he'll be the wingman for Callax's lead. So he nods his head in his cockpit before saying on comms, "Affirmative." And then he cuts off his mic, doublechecks that, and says, "Demo. Rock me."

And that is when some slick music comes into his helmet's speakers. Not super loud. Just enough to get him into the groove.. and he snap-rolls to align himself up with the rear port arc of Rogue Ten, planning to stick to the guy like... like... okay, like a mynock.

<Looks like we're partners, Violet,> Nova says, pulling a quick roll and turn to form up on the Jedi's wing. <Shall we demonstrate a few maneuvers? I can take the wing position if you need a little more time to get used to the X-Wing,> she offers reasonably.

Suddenly their wing is replaced, and with young master Tommaz of all people. A slight smile lines Callax's lips. << Acknowledged, Seven, >> Callax calls over the general channel, then clicks over to tight-beam to Twelve. << All right, Tommaz. If you weren't good, you wouldn't be here, so just keep up and we'll be fine. >>

Babo whistle-clicks a message to the cockpit monitor, and Callax sighs. "Babo, darling," they say, "I'm the last person to give /anyone/ trouble over being new and different. Just keep to the systems, won't you please? That's a good lad."

<<"You ready, Greystorm?">> Poe calls over the encrypted Republic channel. There's humor in his voice, but it doesn't convey properly; instead it comes across like something similar to a robot. This was common with heavily encrypted channels. Rogue Leader angles up high after a casual spin. The red engines of the X-Wing come to life, and the crafts sudden burst in speed left the shields shimmering slightly. Poe turns on his wing-beacon, then opens his S-foils in preparation for the heat. He hadn't done one of these since the academy. That thought makes him chuckle.

Zan nods to herself, taking a deep breath and centering herself. << Roger, Seven,>> she starts with, then adds, << Seems like. Not the first time, Moonbeam. Though I think mostly I've been on your wing. >> There's amusement on her face and in her voice, as she replies to the other pilot. << And sure, this should be fun. Let's play a bit. >> To the R2, she says, "It's a training run, Ono. Don't panic." Whether or not the silly droid listens to her, that's another story entirely. << Starting now, >> Zan adds, as she hits her x foils, opening them to attack, and takes off, screaming across to the horizon. Or well, mostly.

Jax breaks from Rogue 10's wing and forms up on Rogue Leader. His s-foils closing. Letting his old boss take the lead. <Alright Pretty Boy, just like the D'Qar days. You lead the way and look good. I'll bring up the rear and try not to embarrass you too bad.> Exine chimes something in Jax's ear. "Hush. That's what happened in those days. You got a corroded electro and it's corrupted your memory banks. " Jax says as heads into the move following Rogue Leader the engines flaring to life and follows through the move exactly as Poe did.

Rogue Seven pulls back to give her the big picture on scan. She can see the experience in the crispness of the pilots maneuvers even with the odd pairings she's assigned them. There is a method to the madness. A faint smile plays on her lips as she watches them through the canopy.

<<"I want you to find range. Spacing on your wing elements look good. Everyone with foils open. We'll begin with Rogue Leader and Rogue 9 firing on Rogue 11 and Rogue 5. The winner of that exchange will then fire on Rogue 10 and 11.">

Elrych watches on from afar as the scrimmage ensues, his X-wing moving in a nice and even cruising pattern with the s-foils closed. <<"You guys are looking pretty good out there. Now let's not let a little practice bruise all those egos I know each of you has. Everyone is special in their own way.">> Maybe he had participation trophies ready for when the squadron RTBed.

Poe laughs when Jax comments about the game plan. <<"You're too hard on yourself, Corsair.. is it?">> Poe dives after a graceful arc, taking him toward the planet and the other fighters. Switching his weapons to training mode, the cannons barked with flashes but produced nothing that might harm the other pilots. It just happened to be that Nova's fighter fell to his sights and he engaged, locking into a brief flight pattern with her. His shots came subsequent to that, and he angled off, spinning evasively in an advanced technique that saw all four engine outputs flare, indicative of craft pushing for speed. Poe glanced at his sensor readout to detect whether Jax was still there. A subtle look, and Poe was coming about for a second pass.

Jax remains on Poe's wing as he goes on the attack. He lines up on a shot on Rogue Five, his shots true as targets the Jedi in the T-85. His cross hair lighting up and Exine chiming the sound he makes when he locks on. He pulls the trigger only to miss to Zandra's skill as a pilot. A smile spreads across Jax's lips. <Nice foot work, Violet. You've been working on your dance moves.> Though of course Jax appears to be working on his too as Nova and Zandra return the joust, Exine lets out a squeak and Jax hits a rudder and pulls out to the left letting her over shoot him. He forms up on Poe's wing, <It was in the Kath hound days, but I'm fine with Rogue Nine, Lead."

<Well, this is gonna be fun... guess I'll see how long I can stretch out the inevitable,> Nova mutters, taking her ship into a scissoring contest against Poe. The jolt to her ship is as predictable as it is painful, and naturally he's out of the way of her shots practically before she fires them. "Geez, Jammer, did you have to stutter that etheric rudder so violently? I'd swear you're enjoying this!" Jammer's reply doesn't show up as words, but it sounds decidedly like a scratchy electronic laugh. She knows him all too well; he is.

Zan lets her HUD show her target, and she squares off against Poe and Jax. << C'mon, Moonbeam, think positive, >> she offers gently. She manages to avoid the shots her way by the skin of her teeth, though she might as well be firing at asteroids for all the fright she puts into her targets. There's a half shrug, and she too spins her x-wing to come around for another pass.

Twisting the control stick, Crash says aloud, "Demo. Give me full thrust." A pause and he adds, "No full spee... oh, this is as fast as the T-85 goes. Gotcha. Sorry Demo." And he eyes Rogue-Ten out there, doing his level best to stay on his wing leader's ... well wing.

"Do me a favor Demo and tell me when this party st.." *BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP!*

His display reads: SHIELDS DOWN TO 25%... and Crash wants to bang his head against the control console, "starts." he mutters with a shake of his head. "Good shooting." He announces listlessly over the squadron-comms.

Then he looks down to the screen showing R2-C4's speech as text where it reads: If it would help, I could explode some of the engine cowling to make it appear battle damaged...

And Crash just sighs, "How many times do I have to tell you, blowing up our own fighter is never a solution."

Callax breaks from Crash to do their dueling; hand on the stick, the pilot's fingers wrap lightly around it, bringing the ship around in a tight loop, coming down from above, targeting the younger man's vessel and raking its exposed fuselage without the slightest hint of mercy. After all, he's not going to learn with Callax being light on him.

<< Have Demo keep an eye on your aft quarter, Twelve, >> they instruct Crash, voice stern but even. << Astromechs are just metallic co-pilots. >>

Babo lets out a chortle. "Thought you'd like that," Callax chuckles, setting up for the next flight...

Paired off, the squadron runs in elements at each other. Rogue Leader and Corsair, Rogue 9 making hits on their opposites for this go around. Moonbeam and Violet get a light hazing from their teammates. Rogue Four rocks into the fight and on the spur of the moment, Tallie adds herself into the group taking shots at Callax in Rogue 10 and their rookie, Crash in Rogue 12. Crash gets the short end of the stick with his shields down twenty-five percent, but Callax sails through the fight unscathed as does Tallie and Elrych. <"This round form two teams of four. Show us how to do it. Team A: Poe, Jax, Crash, Tallie. Team B: Elrych, Nova Callax, Zan, Callax. Any questions, please ask on com.">

Poe had lined up for another pass, but Tallie stopped the heat to rearrange the squadron into fighting wings. When they were aligned and poised for the next attack heat, Poe engaged his engines to move forward, this time targeting Elrych. He moved after the Corellian, 'firing' a salvo that didn't make a connection. Poe busted out laughing, closing his S-foils to boost over the other pilot. He spun toward the planet again, using the bright massive spere to increase the difficulty of actually hitting him. <<"Nice moves, Elrocks. That's Corellian if I ever saw it. Hahaha!">>

Elrych wets his lips as that slow groovy song ends. The new Jedi Knight reaches a hand forward to flips the s-foils switch, the wing tips seperating into that iconic X-wing shape known far and wide across the galaxy. <<"Alright, campers... Here I come.">> Makign sure his shields are balanced, he pushes the throttle hard forward, pink engines roaring to life. "Eggsy," Elrych prompts his R2 unit, "Give me something a bit more up tempo, yeah?" The droid whistles an afirmative before a cascade of heavy beats and distorted electric stringed instraments dueling harmically fill the cockpit with sound. He grins, maneuvering in to his group. Poe turning in on him and firing catches his Jedi senses off guard. Perhaps it was because there wasn't any mal intent behind the attack... and with low powered lasers. Elrych just maneuvers out of the way for the bolts to miss. He comes aboutn, attempting to get an advantage over the seasoned pilot. Yet he comes up short. <<"I swear... it's his hair. It's magic... Space magic. Are we sure he's not a Wizzard, too?">>

After a pass or two, Crash seems to have gotten a feel for how his sluggish fighter maneuvers and accelerates. And by sluggish... it's just not the ultra-responsive thing that he'd prefer. But with tunes in his ears, he gives himself over to his instinct and gut... and just flies. It's not so much a coordinated strategy. It's a bit of a dance as he weaves and wobbles.

"Yes Demo. I -am- trying to let them take a shot, but on my terms.." he says as he eases his head left, then right... along with his maneuvers and sudden bursts of acceleration. But in the end, he snap rolls up and over a series of shots... firing retros at the same time so that he comes back down into position along the same vector, but behind the fighter that just fired at him.

Once there, he waggles his stabilizer-foils and rolls into a dive to get back into position. Stupid kids these days.

<< You are all amazing, >> is Zan's comment, replying back to Elrych's Wizard comment. She gets slammed this time, grumbling under her breath. << Glad this is just practice. This is not quite as fast as my A-Wing. >> yeah, it's an excuse, but only a little one. << I definitely need more practice at this. I hope we do this a lot. Cause I need a lot of practice. >> She works the formation okay, missing her zig, zag and dodge, alas. "Ono, you're up. Time to get those shields up," she adds, cheerfully. "Isn't that just what you wanted?" Or course, the only reply from the droid sounds very much like "Oh no oh no oh no."

As the heat changes, Jax found him engaging Nova. Jax remains on Poe's wing till the joust hits and he peels off in a barrel roll to engage Rogue 11. Though he was slow and Nova had the dropped on him as his shots go wide and miss, shooting harmlessly into space and set him up to be tagged.

They reform into groups, Tallie inserting herself into an element with Poe taking leader of their fluid four. Firing on their squadron members was more fun than she thought it would be, Tallie twists the craft into an aileron roll as she bears down on Callax, whispering, "Take that you!" Fiver whistles something about purple and they both chortle as her lasers miss.

Over general coms, <"I want to thank you every one of you for the great first time out as a group. I deliberately mixed flights so you wouldn't think in terms of just your flight. Any tactical suggestions will be appreciated when we debrief.">

Jammer's next noise is a bleep to announce that he's pushed the deflector screens back up a bit. "Nice, but we're still on the menu," Nova replies, pulling into position for the next exchange. Apparently this time it's as part of a bigger combat wing. <Eleven, in hot...>

She can't tell who just fired at her, but a timely barrel roll saves her. Jax's fighter looms up in her sights, and she triggers a burst that grazes his deflectors. It's not much of a hit, but it's something after a difficult night. <Tag, Jax! Guess you're it now!> she calls as she pulls away.

She honestly has no idea where that came from.

Faced off against Tallie, Callax punches ahead forward - they know she's the better pilot, and the better gunner, but they're no amateur themselves. Banking left and rolling right, Rogue Ten dances through the first part of Tallie's fusillade...into the other, stripping a quarter of the ship's shields away. "Very good, Tallissan," Callax mutters, lining her ship up in their targeter display, "Now let me repay the favor." From the ship's guns, Callax's own retort is well-aimed, but Tallie's just /that good/. Barely a scratch, but at least a scratch it is.