Log:Saber Three is Down
Saber Three is Down
OOC Date: December 22, 2023
Location: Space
Participants: Sloane Azarin, Nels Ophiran
A routine patrol in a quiet sector of space. Four X-Wings glide through the vast emptiness, with only the occasional check-in from the lead of the formation. "Saber One to Saber Flight, anything showing up on scans at all for you?" "Negative Saber One, should we angle for that asteroid about thirty clicks off and give it a scan? Might get some mynocks to shoot at." "Negative Saber Four, we have our flight plan and orders. No deviations. Let's keep this quiet and uneventful." And on they go, just going through the motions of the patrol to check off a box on some Flight Coordinator's board back at fleet.
Nels is in Saber Three, and is keeping himself occupied while he makes occasional adjustments to stay in formation, by glancing over an intel report or two about the sector they are traveling through. Occasional Sith activity, but most encounters happen closer to the fourth planet, half a star system away. No report of Imperial bases, no report of new construction in system.
They say that in space no one can hear you scream. That goes for the scream of a TIE fighter's engine's too. That distinctive sound can't really be heard across the black fabric of spacetime. The black ships dodge and weave through the asteroids, keeping their distance for the moment, either by design or accident. "Echo to Sigma," crackles a woman's voice across the Sith comms, "take Delta to the antenae and do your flyby. Transmit the package. If engaged, jam and return to us." There's an acknowledgement from a voice that it's hard to gender and two of the TIEs, a Whisper and an Avenger, break off to do their flybies of a listening antenae hidden among the asteroids here.
There's a glint of reflection, Nels is sure of it, that just catches him out of the corner of his eye. He turns to look and...oh...those are TIE fighters off in the distance. Not TOO far off in the distance either. Apparently the asteroid field masked their activity. "Saber Three to Saber Flight, Sith TIEs, unknown number, Port side. Going to guess....seven to ten clicks out. Shall we engage?" "Saber One here, form up in pairs, let's see what the Sith are up to our here. Don't get pulled into anything TOO dangerous, just a probe at the moment til we figure it out. Lock S-Foils in attack position." The X-Wings of Saber flight engage the motors to turn their wings into the distinctive X of their ship, and then wheel about to approach the Sith fighters.
"Echo to Savage Flight, recall all fighters. Form up into Echo-Three-Three," says thaat woman's voice over the Sith comms after Sloane catches sight of the flight of X-wings. It's a fair fight, as fair a fight as any of these things ever are, when considering relative tech to numbers. "Bank starboard thirty-two degrees, half speed, behind that nickel-iron rock." It should put the TIEs in the shadows of some of the larger asteroids while giving them a moment of cover and making the Rebels wonder which side, exactly, the TIEs will pop out from. "Whatch your sensors. If there's a carrier or more X-wings we retreat," the female voice, Echo, instructs her wing.
"They're trying to duck behind that asteroid it looks like Sabers. Split into two flights. Two, you're with me. Three and four you take starboard, we'll take port, and hopefully catch them in pincers. Maybe we can pop a couple and do some investigation." Saber Leader's voice cackles over the comms as the TIE fighters start to make their moves. Three and four split off as instructed, as one and two do the same. The Rebels start to close in on the hidden TIEs, and Nels calls over his shoulder to his astromech, "Turn up the power on the scanner. We can lose some weapon juice here for a minute while we figure out which way they are going and if there's an ambush coming." The droid whistles affirmation, and then, the fighters are in range of one another.
Yes, there is a trap! The flight of TIEs have stuck together in an ironic X-formation and have swung down at the bottom of the chunky asteroid. They pop up on the underside, having toggled their stealth on. Worse, their TIE Whisper companion - Sigma, as referenced earlier - has gone for the jamming. The TIEs come into range and open fire with their heavy lasers, sending thick bolts of red energy barreling toward their X-wing counterparts. Each of the TIEs veers off to a course Echo had provided, swinging to the sides an in attempt to swing around and come back around at the X-wings from behind. Who knows how many will actually make it!
Ambush! And he knew it was coming! It's even MORE annoying when the ship that's ambushing him hits him FOUR times with it's cannons, knocking out his shields. That's not great for an X-wing. "Two-six see if you can't get our shields up, fast!" He then yanks the stick and sends the X-Wing spinning. He's not real clear about the status of his wingmate, or the other X-Wings in the flight. He's busy trying to survive. He maneuvers quickly, going through a roll and then a sharp turn, cutting his engines to flip his ship around. The Twi'lek fires off a couple of snap shots, not very confident in the result...but at least it's a shot.
Echo, Sloane, has given her orders to her flight and now trusts them to do what they need to do. There's still chatter across the comms here and there, but mostly it's a deathly silence that leaves each Sith pilot facing their own X-wing. They are trained. They know what they're doing. Their voices are calm and steady as befits the years of expensive training they've each been given. "Delta engines hit." comes bad news, a TIE going into a spiral. "Sigma splash one." And while happier news, it's the same monotone. Maybe it's just their helmet comms reducing them to the same sound?
In her own TIE Silencer, Sloane flips around. Lasers graze the paintjob. There's no Astromech to cry out and warble in defiance at the X-wing. Just an implacable look from a black-tinted visor behind a black-tented blastglass cockpit shield. She flips the fighter around at a lot of Gs and pulls the trigger on the dual-linked heavy cannons, sending four more bolts toward the X-wing she's been chasing.
Ambushed, and shot up, and distracted as he tries to get his shields back up, Nels is suffering from klaxon paralysis. That, on top of his T-85 not being the most maneuverable, means his ship is not long for this world. Another quad blast hits his armor, chewing through it and putting the engines at critical. He slaps the eject button for himself, calling, "Two-six get out!" Hopefully the R2 unit does so. He doesn't know, because the sparks and fire of his ejector seat drown out any other noises. And then, he's floating in the blackness of space, waiting, watching the battle unfold. Helpless.
That TIE Silencer passes by so close, so fast, that Nels' mind might be tricked into thinking it feels a wind blowing across the back of his neck. He doesn't, but in these situations, the brain does weird things. Sloan banks to the port and joins in with one of the TIEs in double-teaming an X-wing. Which is probably right in the nick of time as the TIE she joined looked to be struggling against a clearly superior pilot - way to go Saber Two! The fight might feel like it takes a long time, but dogfights rarely do. It's over in minutes with the remnants of each flight going their separate ways after the brief but furious skirmish.
Surely someone will pick up Nels.
