Log:Sith Empire: Troiken Siege
Troiken is attacked
OOC Date: May 20, 2024
Location: Troiken
Participants: Ban Iskender, Bors Thul, Merulia, Aryn Cortess
The Star Destroyer Merciless appeared in high orbit above the world Troiken. It was an ominous object that could be seen from the surface, its angular shape unmistakable and foreboding. Unfazed by the notion of Imperial invasion, or that allies rallying to the exiled Prince's cause, Colonel Nim's defensive force was a masterwork of complex redundancies and a spider web intended to ensnare any large occupation. The goal?
Time.
Allies of the exiled Prince Ilik began to populate proximity of the planet with corvettes, frigates, and other large capital vessels appearing in brief, soundless flashes.
Aboard the Merciless, TIE squadrons were given orders to scramble whilst the Sith Lord entourage looked on from a cinematic view within the bridge. TIE/sf screamed from the hangar bays, pouring out like a colony of hornets, angry and ready to engage the nearest enemy.
Ser Bors, the Black Knight of Alderaan, was commissioned to lead the assault on a key communications station occupying high orbit. The only problem was that a squadron of weapons jamming interceptors prevented the Merciless from obliterating the massive station out right, and there was no such thing as 'eye balling' a shot of this magnitude. Additionally, bombers were scrambled with nuclear warheads, intent on reaching the Star Destroyer and taking it out of the fight. With 5 interceptors and 5 heavy bombers, Thul's squadron had their hands full.
In the command couch of his TIE Whisper, dying to scratch his nose but unable due to the blasted envirosuit helmet, the Black Knight adjusts the knob on his control yolk, eyes passively scanning data scrolling on the HUD on the front of the mask.
<<"This is Black Knight, moving on target - call out and maintain formation until contact - then break to wings and engage. Keep them away from the Merciless and find those jammers. We need an open window.">> Deigning to speak in 'Common Basic' for ease as his craft screams towards the enemy, his sensor alerts lighting up in bursts of crimson.
Darth Durandus watched from the Star Destroyer's bridge, awaiting only word from the fighter wing that the first obstacle to their invasion had been cleared. Only then would the Knight of Tears be able to fight toward his own expertise.
Many had insisted it was unwise, many had tried to persuade the exiled primarch that the risk was not worth the reward, but Ilik Omnenos, self declared Prince of Troiken, was present in a small, stubby Starfighter scaled to his diminutive stature. The grey skinned little alien piloted an old Porax 38-b model fighter, sounding in over comms to the flight leader in a rapid series of croaks and chatters. The computers translated for him: <<Primarch Six, armed and in your wake, sir Black Knight.">> It was a curious reversal of numerology that in Xexto squadrons, 6 was the foremost number, rather than 1.
Merulia, Nightsister of Dathomir was no fighter pilot, she'd had to be taught the very basics to even fly a ship once she'd first departed the Witch's homeworld and so the seat of the cockpit was not for her. Instead the Sephi woman too stood aboard the Star Destroyer, waiting for her own role to be called upon as she listed to the updates of the battle to happen.
But this was not her story. Instead Lara Nai, the scarred and olive-skinned pilot beneath the helmet of her TIE flight suit clicked the controls over as her weapons fully charged.
<<On your wing Black Knight>>
The initial joust begins as interceptors sally forth, well ahead of the bombers slowly chugging toward the Star Destroyer. Surface cannons aboard the Merciless light up with vibrant green blasts, but the distant cannons find only the void to fill with the misery of misses.
Colonel Nim's forces have prepared for this invasion a 1000 times over, rehearsing and drilling over, and over, and over, and over until they knew the battle lines with their eyes closed. One Hutt ball enthusiast might share the anecdote that Nim's forces have the home field advantage.
Approach vectors for Ilik's forces are ill aligned, giving the attack to Nim.
<<"Here they come!">> Exclaimed one pilot in Thul's squadron!
<<"Just like falling down stairs.">>
Whatever that could represent. Bors twists his yolk when the melee begins, spinning into a tight spiral aiming to half-loop into the rear of the pack with eyes narrowed behind the lenses of his helm.
<<"Watch thine spacing and thy wings.">> Ignoring the indicator screen mounted on the control panel, eyeing his shot as he comes around. The heavy fore mounts already chattering when the old man rakes the 'targeting point' on his HUD over his target - molten metal flash freezing into twisted daggers before the fighters fuselage erupts in flames, showering shrapnel around the TIE craft that streaks past.
The Xexto in the stubby little Porax veered out of the joust with a short roll, avoiding the worst of the initial fusillade, but still taking a hit to the forward shields. Rather than returning fire, Prince Ilik used one of his four arms to shunt power from the guns to rebalance the shields, another to boost the engines, and two forward arms to steer and lock the formation of bombers into his tactical computer. <<"Shields holding. Beginning attack run on tyrant bombers,">> was the translation of his chittering speech.
The pilot's shields shudder as she twists and banks with the dogfighting dance commencing. Two on her tail and only one avoided, warning signals flash within the cockpit. Still, the TIE banked and pursued, taking aim at the contact that fired upon her. Blaster bolts sing through the void, but they fail to find their target. Her gunner on the other hand? He finds his mark, scoring a more solid hit.
Nim's interceptors suffer a loss as the TIE/Whisper piloted by the veteran ace Ser Bors blasts them out of space. The remainder of the squadron, absent Prince Ilik, begin to fight, each pilot vying for a superior position in a cyclone of engine contrails and laser blasts. Green and red lasers crisscross, with Ilik's forces taking hits to shields but not before giving as good as they get.
With the fight ramping up, the bombers draw closer and Prince Ilik is in range. Mid-range turret gunners on the bombers begin to spool up their cannons with the hopes of engaging the lone Porax and its mad assault.
<<"Copy, covering your run.">> Angling to loop in onto Ilik's flank, wishing he could only pour on even more speed - running at full throttle as it is.
As if there was any other speeds besides landed and face being peeled back from one's skull.
Brushing past incoming fire, and making to get ahead of Ilik now while the fighters try to screen, the quintet of heavy cannons creating spirals of emerald as they fire in alternating sequence to create a wall of fighter to hem in one target, then another.
<<"Your grace, your path should be clear.">> Waggling his wings at the Porax on his way back around again.
<<"Sir Black Knight is most courteous. Commencing fire,">> The chatter from Primarch 6 is punctuated by the clicking of Ilik's laughter as his canopy flashes with the pair of detonations Bors' cannonry conjure from the interceptors. He dips down and then up to attack the bomber squadron from below the beam line, rendering the turret fire ineffective. The twin lasers of the Porax unload into the lead bomber, grinding down its shields with steady fire. Another hand rebalances the restored shields, while a third shifts auxiliary power from engines to guns.
The pilot and their gunner weren't quite ready to meet their ends. As her hands work to cycle the shielding, pumping power back into those protective fields while her gunner swung the turret towards their pursuer. One swift heavy salvo against the target ends in a muffled explosion in the void and a little breathing space made as the Wingman of the 'Knight' sweeps to reengage.
Colonel Nim's interceptor screen was down, and with it, the jamming field that prevented heavy cannons from targeting large structures. Ventral cannons were pushed out from their hardpoints beneath the massive vessel, and from the bridge, a starkly dressed Captain stands aside Prince Ban and Queen Aryn observing the battle when a Commander arrives to inform the Captain, "Cannons are priming, sir. We will be ready to fire shortly."
Turret fire from the bombers lights up the space now as they draw closer, sluggishly, and without the protection of the interceptors. The mission was becoming a bust. Still, they persisted, stubborn and defiant till the end.
New orders were disseminated from the Merciless Captain, <<"Eradicate remaining bomber forces.">> Their voice, despite the High Galactic tone, sounded robotic over the encrypted net.
Fighter rolling and banking to sweep his approach, Bors's evasion of incoming fire is more reflex than conscious. Thumb flipping a toggle to swap his fire payload the old Alderaanian's mouth twists behind the environment suit. Brow knitting and coming to a decision with a slight uptick at the corner of his mouth.
Gauging his shot as he angles in, a violet and electric blue shimmering warhead is loosed by the fighter on approach, a torpedo meant to disable one of the craft - though scudding by just low of one of the bombers.
Ilik was a capable pilot, but one facing his first true battle. He only narrowly avoids the turret fire of his target as the Xexto continues to feed the little fighter's weapon systems at the expense of the engines. Despite his innate talent at multitasking, the Xexto has only one set of eyes, and the small maneuver to avoid the turrets drags his own cannon fire off target. <<A miss. Coming back around for soul of tyrant occupiers.>>
The TIE Whispers were a long way from the old TIE fighters of the Empire gone. They enabled the pilots to have a better chance of survival...and they were also expensive, even moreso than the pilots they have trained. As warnings flash the crew attempted to divert and bypass, but all that they gained for their trouble was a more intense shower of sparks flowing into the cockpit and the weapon circuits fusing.
A soft curse flowing through her comlink to the battlenet, the fighter swept into retreat back towards the Star Destroyer.
<<Weapon systems non-operational, shields down and hull crippled. Returning for repairs.>>
Still the bombers persisted inching their way closer to the Merciless destroyer. Concern began to thread throughout the bridge crew of the destroyer as equipment picked up enemy signatures coming within range. "What are the surface cannons waiting for, Commander? An invitation, hmm. Have them engage." Spoke the Captain, who then turned back to the view to lock his hands firmly at the small of his back.
With the bombers making for the Merciless, and still at full number, Bors re-toggles his weapons and the main cannons power back up. Instinctively pushing the throttle lever, despite it being physically incapable of raising any further before he re-grips the yolk.
<<"Focus fire. That is one too many.">> Said when one of the TIEs is destroyed by concentrated fire. His mouth becoming an ugly slash visible to none. Thumbs pressing the firing studs at his grip and the cannons belch viridian fire again. <<"Clear as many as you can on the way in.">>
The Black Knight's TIE already flying through the wreckage of one of the bombers, torn apart by physics as much as fire in the old man's passing.
Banking the Porax back for a second pass, Prince Ilik croaks followed by a rapid chatter. The computers translate: <<Acknowledged, Sir Black Knight. Fiery justice anticipated shortly.>> The twin lasers spit repeatedly, chipping through remnant of shields, hull, and ultimately a short lived fireball.
A TIE/sf ignites from turret fire just as two bombers are picked apart by Thul's fighter squadron. The conflict is brought to a decisive end as turrets along the surface of the star destroyer begin to rotate in place and take in targets lacking friendly IFFs. A sea of green cannon fire follow, picking apart the remaining bombers and opening the way for the final structure.
"You may fire when ready, Commander," informs the Captain, who turned slightly from the view of the skirmish to say such, then adjusted to watch on. The star destroyer's ventral cannons release its volley, and the communications space structure Nim's forces tried to protect is struck in eight different places before its triggered a larger explosion the consumes the entire station in a spectacular display. Mission accomplished!
TIE squadrons and troop carrying vessels begin to launch from the Merciless as the next leg of the invasion begins...
