Log:Zhu Yan and the Annihilator Cannon!

A rag tag team cleans up yet another mess that Zhu Yan created.

OOC Date: May 23, 2021
Location: Asteroid AS-99942, Unnamed System
Participants: Aubrei, Nerys Greystorm, Saturi, Tarion Tavers, Wrrlryyhn, Zelo Parrai, Zhu Yan as Self/GM

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

"DIVE DIVE DIVE HIT YOUR BURNERS PILOTS!"

That was the GENTLE DULCET TONES of none other than today's hero Zhu Yan, PROPAGATED SENSUALLY across a SMALL COMM NETWORK forged by a well-crafted COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOL earlier that day! Why indeed, it was ENCRYPTED and SECURED and TIGHT BAND and well suited for this squadron of ACE PILOTS to do their thing.

Wait, what was their thing? Oh right, diving.

Let me paint for you a picture in the only way I can, with words. A long time ago in a system not too far away, Zhu Yan blew up a planet. We know this because Zhu Yan often opens conversations with 'Did you know I blew up a planet?' Anyway, the former residents of said planet, well, the survivors, have gotten together and somehow, possibly with help, built a giant asteroid-mounted cannon.

This weapon was called THE ANNIHILATOR CANNON. Clearly by someone with a /flair/ for the /dramatic/. It sat embedded in the rocky surface of AS-99942 in a belt in a distant star system that was so remote it didn't even have a name. It was able to slowly traverse and shoot down anything larger than a tramp freighter without difficulty, making it a dicey proposition to approach in anything sizeable. If you're thinking 'Oh it's the Death Star!' you're about twenty-five percent right, in that it's a big gun that shoots things like stations and is horrifically vulnerable to a strike fighter force.

The weapon itself sat on metaphorical stilts, unarmoured and skeletal owing to the fact that most of the budget had been spent on an AC/DC movie tie-in. The core of the weapon ran deep into the rock, accessible by both plasma vent tubes and maintenance tunnels that connected into the rocky, canyon-laced surface of the 'roid.

You can see where this is going.

The squadron popped out of hyperspace directly above the asteroid, staring straight down the barrel of possibly the second-biggest gun they'd ever seen. Surface blatteries (they go blat) lit up within seconds of their arrival, tracing red lines into space as they weaved some sort of defensive perimeter. Aural replicators relayed the sound of klaxons, as fighters on a nearby pad warmed up for interception. The only way out was down. "There's a network of canyons that connects to the plasma ventilation system," continued the dumbass in the lead fighter, a plain grey-and-blue T-70 happily chirping X/W Heartbreak 1 over IFF that was currently moving at speeds beyond 'breakneck' and had settled somewhere in 'plaid', "punch through point defence and head down them until we get into the superstructure." Yan was ignoring the kvetching of the R3 unit behind him, her only reasons for being here to do repairs and /vex/ him. "Do NOT get plinked, because there's not going to be a ride home from this one!"

Theme For The Day: https://youtu.be/80XAJKqRU9k

[ Aubrei (Bre)]

It was one of those times when Aubrei starts to wonder 'how did I get myself into this mess?' as they appear right before the end of the gun. Lovely. Such a beautiful sight if it did not spell death out. There is little time to wonder exactly what brought her to this point but the Pacifier twists and turns, diving out of the way of the line of sight on the canon. <"Wait a moment. So why did they make this and who is it for?"> What is it for? Maybe she was read a line to get her to help out and at the moment has yet to realize the person leading this crusade is the one that directly led to its creation.

At least Yan is cleaning up his mess. SHOCKING.

"I really need to invest in a droid." This stark realization comes too late though thankfully her co-pilot and gunner has a handle on the droid front.

"I have a feeling this might be a tight fit for the Hunting but she looks determined to fit a square peg in a round hole. "Here goes nothing."

<"Copy that. Hunting following.">

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

"You've got yourself double-magged locked, right? I don't want to hear you screaming about dents in your chassis when you go flying back into cargo." Because this was a thing that happened. "Again." Belate's dulcet tones harangued in proper Belate fashion. Of course he was magged locked in. He was a grown droid and knew what he was doing! Fish, tell Nerys he knew what he was doing! Fish, that was crewman and gunner Zioet Fish, pointedly ignored the astromech, which was better for all involved, trust him on this, as the heavy aggressor began a nose dive towards the intended target.

"Tell us again how you blew up a planet and didn't bother to make sure you left no survivors, Zhu." Nerys' tone was light, conversational, as she dived and rolled, trying to do the nearly impossible. And that was to make the heavy fighter a small target. Here we go, you guys! Dropping like a rock!

[ Wrrlryyhn (Wrr)]

What is a good space/flight scene with out the obligatory Wookiee. With really no other reason to be there than getting some target practice in, there she was, your obligatory Wookiee. Her gun ship dropped out of hyper space a bit behind the others. What she lacked in hyper space speed though, she made up for in normal space. She rolled in fancy defensive maneuvers, avoiding being plunk, and then warbles over her comes. "woeieowl wrall." Fortunately the dry, mechanical drone of her translator, Wasaka soon followed.

[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]

Zelo Parrai is not as used to sitting co-pilot, but if there's someone he trusts to get them on point and in position, it's the Mandalorian owner of the Hunting Gravitation. He looks over to her as she deftly maneuvers the scouting ship. "At least I can bring something to the mission besides my aim. Reba can handle any shield situations that come up and the BB..." He glances back over his shoulder, tendrils spilling down over the gleaming blue beskar. "Will find something. He always does." Without his helmet to hide them, black-pool eyes turn to the weapons controls in front of them, fingers tapping screen after screen to bring everything online. "Leave the aiming to me. You've got this." No need for him on comms, the ridealong's only job to help his pilot on the mission

Why was he here? Well... The last outing to an obscure system to fight an unspecified experimental superweapon was fully booked. And, he hasn't flown with his wingmate in a while. Too long a while, at that.

[ Saturi (Uri)]

A deadly mix of poor decision making, faith in Zhu Yan's mission planning, and overconfidence in own her abilities has put the Pantoran pilot behind the yoke of Heartbreak 2. Assumptions can be nasty business. Fighters aren't shuttlecraft. After overcontrolling through the first dive, Saturi starts to catch on. Her hands stop pushing through each maneuver with such aggressive force. She could try to add something to the conservation, but it wouldn't be much more than a bit of anxious inner monologue. The woman keeps her ship glued in formation with anyone else, avoiding the ubiquitous blaster fire.

[ Tarion Tavers (TT)]

Expanding out of hyperspace fashionably late is the FRS Parallax, a Firespray spray-painted blue and gold with the talent of an adolescent's submission to a model car derby. The ship itself somewhat remarkable, the flying clothes iron shape with the twin cannons on the nose and a bevy of missile launchers hidden away under various compartments, but what really sticks out is the instant, whining voice blaring over the open comms. Not the encrypted ones, the OPEN comms.

<"You people are just lucky I decided to get out of bed for this because I haven't gotten out of bed for /anything/ in like, uhhh. Krif, what day is it. In some long span of days, ok ka, that's what I'm trying to get across here, so the pay for this better be /big/, like, oh holy hell, that's a big gun. The scale of this gun, okay, that's the size of the pay we're talking, here."> There's a brief pause in the inane chatter as the ship abruptly lurches downward towards the canyons, turning a lazy pinwheel as it goes. <"And look at these caves! The credits, when stacked, should probably fill them at the minimum, I think that's only fair."> It's Tarion Tavers, the most annoying bounty hunter in the galaxy.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

"<<Well to be fair I didn't think I left any time for evacuuuuUUUUUUWWWWWHHHHOOOA!>>" If you had ever wanted to see a ZHU YAN PANCAKE (a Yancake, as it were), then alas, you are out of luck. Heartbreak 1 pulled up a smidge too late, and spray from the rubble dinged the shields. Then the engines fired and the skeletal multirole jet launched itself down the narrow, rutted canyon dug by entropy and impacts into the asteroid. "<<Sithspit.>>"

The sound of additional firing ion engines joined the din as fighters took off from a nearby landing pad. "<<Incoming. Sensors show... Planetary Defenders. Basically two-seater X-Wing compettttiiittttt...>>" Yan's voice broke as his focus was suddenly shifted to a sharp bend in the canyon run. "<<Whatever, fighters, big, fast, not too agile!>>" There was a break in the ever-present point defense on the surface that made rising out of the canyon a dicey proposition to allow two large fighters to slip in behind the squadron. They were long, with wide wings, best suited for exactly what their name entailed.

The walls of the canyon whipped past and came out to a crater-like area, deep, with a little room to breathe and maneuver, and with a fork in the branches. Besides the way they came, there were two paths. One looked tight, twisted, and little-traversed. The other was wide and smooth and shiny.

Like it had been blasted clean.

"<<Pick a direction,>>" Yan instructed, breaking off and heading towards the tight twisty corridor. "<<Both lead to the cannon internals, one via maintenance and the other via the plasma exhaust. I'll let you figure out which is which.>>" Behind them roared the Planetary Fighters in pursuit!

[ Aubrei (Bre)]

Not an easy run, the added benefit of having swathes of unneeded monologues as a distraction is that you get to have more of an adrenaline spike when you barely clear some of the turns in a wider ship than the others present. The Hunting clears the edge of a turn just in time, a soft screech sound echoing inside the cockpit.

"They talk a lot..." Aubrei's way of venting presently as her hands tighten on the controls, going a little white. SHe might be grumbling something far less savory but hard to tell with her teeth clenched like they are. After that momentary trouble she eyes the clean path, gives Zelo a look and guns it. She heads forward as fast as she can, the clean edges of their run looking ominous at best.

<"Taking the easy path, the other is going to likely get us killed for trying."> This one likely could to. But now without having to worry about twists and turns she maxes the speed.

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

"I wish she was a little heavier in the ass." Because who didn't like a bit of conversation as they were hurtling towards their doom? "If I'd known, I'd have loaded her down with some cargo." Nerys, who was let's be clear here, a freighter pilot, was showing up well for herself, so long as no one expected her to actually shoot at anything. Because damnit, she was a space raider not a rocket jockey. "This is a Zhu job...who here thinks we're getting paid? Anyone, anyone?" Thankfully, Nerys could fly and quip at the same time, and the aggressor zipped and zagged, as she tried to avoid three things: the walls of the caverns, the fire of the cannon, and any small arms on the ground...and slamming into one of the other ships.

And then the ships was flying clear of the cavern walls, and taking hard banking forty-five degree turn as it flipped along end over end, before Nerys straightened the ship and it took off towards the maintenance tunnel.

Fish: "Why do I agree to these things?"

Nerys: "Because I pay you an exorbitant salary."

Fish: "Point."

[ Wrrlryyhn (Wrr)]

The obligatory Wookiee, in her fancy little Wookiee gunship studied the two paths. Knowing her limited piloting skill, she opted for the smoother path, tucking in behind the Hunting. Hopefully, the path of least resistance did not prove to be the path of gusts of plasma fire. She stayed of comms. Not that she wasn't warbling and rumbling to herself as she flew, but no one else needed to here the Shyriiwook smack talk.

[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]

"They really do, Captain." Zelo nods to the pilot with a wide smile on his cobalt blue face, and looks back over his seat to the droids. "Get to stations, be ready. If the shields start taking a hit, I want you both keeping Aubrei's ship in the air. You two can work it out between each other." As the rising binary argument between an R3 and a BB unit tweeps, whoops and whistles behind them, he turns back and puts his hands on the firing controls. Anything could be ahead, and behind the flash of a plasma discharge would be a great place to hide something nasty.

"I have every faith in you." And he does. Black-pool eyes turn to look at the pilot as she goes full-throttle, though they still watch the path ahead. "Everyone goes home safe, just like always." Back to the monitors, Zelo. Time for serious business.

[ Saturi (Uri)]

A shower of sparks fly from the bottom of Saturi's fighter as the Pantoran plants the craft firmly into the floor of the canyon. She overcontrols the craft into the wall for a second collision. Both impacts sound significantly worse than they really were. The scraping and grinding forces her teeth to grit against each other. Pulling out of the flawed maneuvers, she notices that the instruments have begun to flicker. "I'm never going to hear the end of it." A flash of energy bursts off the canopy, causing more concern. "It needed repainted anyway." She quietly mutters her justifications.

The fighter rolls into the twisty cavern as point defense weapons try to blow it apart. Golden eyes stay glued to the craggy surfaces ahead. With the panels flickering rapidly, it wouldn't be wise to trust them.

[ Tarion Tavers (TT)]

<"I sure can't wait to get paid for this difficult, dangerous flying,"> Tarion continues into the open comms rather than the encrypted channel. Does he not have the key for the encrypted one? <"Nobody lives forever, we're taking the- what is that, a maintenance shaft or something? Whatever, the narrow one. The road less travelled!"> The Parallax plunges ahead, the twin thrusters in the rear firing for all they're worth. <"Big, Fast, and Not Too Agile is the name of my new Quenk jazz fusion band."> So he DOES have the encrypted channel, he's just not using it.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

It was a tight fit. Barely enough room for two X-Wings side by side, and made the Death Star Trench look positively cavernous. The maintenance tunnel run was not a cakewalk. Left and right and left and right the fighters (and Firespray) had to fling themselves, never once rising above the lip for a breather at risk of getting pinged by laser flak. It's a thing, shut up.

"<<We should be entering the superstructure in a few minutes. Keep up your speed. Those fighters won't be able to follow us in here.>>"

The smuggler was right, a straight-if-narrow tunnel was opening up ahead of them, but Zhu Yan's primary problem is that he's an idiot. The second Planetary Fighter had hopped up out of the canyons and was now flying overhead, unburdened by the need to maneuver to catch them. Smart. More smart? It opened fire, spattering the rock walls near Heartbreak 2 with red laser fire, sending chunks of rubble into the canyons behind them.

Where was the first one? It had followed the Pacifier and the Wookiee Gunship down the plasma vent path. The vent path was a cakewalk, wide, open, shiny, all the hallmarks of a walk in the park. A large tube was opening in front of the two larger ships, for excellent egress. The fighter behind them fired at the trailing gunship, barely grazing it, and followed them inside.

ELSEWHERE:

"Hm," said the man standing in the control room, sipping his tepid cup of caf.

"Sir?"

"Hm?" The fellow in question looked up from the sensor reading to the pimply-faced youth that had questioned him.

"Sir, your orders."

"Fire the cannon."

"Sir?!"

The base commander, stern in appearance and lacking in hair follicles, pointed to the splitting dots on the sensor readout. "Look at the path they've taken. Here," he gestured towards the four dots twisting and weaving through the canyon, "Psi 2 is already above them. Worst comes to worst he'll follow them in, shoot them down, and come back out on repulsors. These two," he gestured to the two bigger dots being pursued by the smaller one, "are right in the path of the plasma vent. Make a test firing, let the exhaust do the work for us."

"What about Psi 1?"

There was silence for a moment as the pair contemplated the less-intelligent of the Planetary Fighter pilots. "He'll either break off or get fried, he'll figure it out."

[ Aubrei (Bre)]

Sensors start to go a little wild as the energy that is building up in the gun messes with the readout screen. Aubrei blinks down at it, her helmet set on the ground beside her so she can have a clear vision of what is ahead of her rather than deal with the narrowed view. "Something is going on but not sure what exactly, can't be good." She'd never once flown into a large open ended barrel of an annhilator! A first time for everything as they say.

"Zelo, so about going home safe. This could end very very badly," she expresses, catching sight of Wrr still on her radar. "We still have a friend too..." She wets her lips, not really having a choice but to keep on their current trek - easy as it is.

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

"Watcha!" Nerys had no idea who had gotten in her way, but trying to avoid the impact sent the aggressor careening into the wall of the tunnel. Everyone inside the ship, from human, to superficially human, to droid rocked and shook as Nerys fought to get the ship back under control. Nerys: "It's a good job I didn't bring the Phoenix. You've have been peeled off the harness I'd have had to strap you into on the hull, Fish." Fish: "I wish you had, I'd rather have died on the back of an X-wing than in this clattertrap." Nerys: "I'm going to tell Kael you said that." Fish: "I will deny it all day."

[ Wrrlryyhn (Wrr)]

Wrr warbled loudly to herself and her droids at the enemy fire skimmed some paint off her Auzituck. She continued to stay mostly off comms though she did gives a little warble to the Mandalorians in her lead. <"woeieowl wrall rwarrl ror."> She chirred, with the mechanical drone of her droid quickly following. <"woeieowl rwal rwarrl rwowoal rwal grarrrl grarrrl."> She added.

[ Wrrlryyhn (Wrr)]

Wasaka (21433) repeats after Wrrlryyhn, "Still with you Hunting. I have a bad feeling about this."

[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]

Zelo sees the interference coming up on the panels and begins to note the pit in his stomach. Something's going on, and the fact that their route is plasma exhaust says it's not going to be a light shower. Maybe a lightshow. He looks back to the droids. "Both of you on a terminal, start directing some extra power to the shields. And tie yourselves down, this could be going really rough really fast." The Nautolan looks over to the pilot, even as she spares a glance for their wing and the tail still speeding along behind.

"Whatever is going to happen, we'll come out the other side of it. I will not die here today. And neither will you. As for them... when we get to the other side of this, do a half barrel roll and go full stop. I'll light them up." He pats Aubrei on her pauldron. "When we get back to Civilization, I'll buy dinner." Another smile, and the Nautolan turns his eyes to the instrument panels. Best to act confident, even if you're getting the same feeling as everyone else.

[ Saturi (Uri)]

<"So much for them not being able to follow us.">

Saturi is less than impressed with the bright red bolts colliding into the rocky walls on her flank. The frustration begins to mount as she realizes that there isn't any room to maneuver. She is only saved by the hostile pilot's inability to hit an easy target.

<"You ..."> The transmission isn't complete. Her insult is instantly cut short as her thumb releases from the button her yoke. She figures that someone else will fill in the gap. Feeling a need for speed, her blue hand pushes forward on the throttle, trying to make herself at least a /little/ more difficult to hit. Barely navigating the treacherous tunnel, she finally spots the previously mentioned opening.

[ Tarion Tavers (TT)]

<"Station commander, this is Ringo Figgins, freedom fighter, and this is a robbery,"> Tarion announces over the open comms. <"For the low low price of one hundred thousand credits, we will go away and never come back! On that, you have my word,"> he lies truthfully, eyes welling up with righteous intent as he twists the steering sticks to the right to corner around a tight bend in the tunnel.

<"Oh, wait, uh, every minute- no, every /thirty seconds/ that passes the price goes up another ten thousand! But still a bargain at any pri- AH!"> The short wing on the starboard side of the ship clips an exposed support girder in a cascade of sparks that sets the whole vessel wobbling wildly on its vertical axis, the pilot struggling to regain control as he neglects to reduce the throttle. Luckily, none of the ships on this team are behind him as the wild, drunken movements of the Parallax take up almost all of the narrow tunnel.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

Sometimes, you just can't pick yourself back up. Psi 2, pursuing the smaller ships into the maintenance tunnels, completely missed his mark and wound up splattered on one of the struts holding up... the ANNIHILATOR CANNON. Psi 1 had better luck, bouncing off the vent wall and crumpling one of the roll stabilizers. Planetary Fighters were terrible at rolling anyway, no big loss. "<<Careful through the tunnels,>>" Yan warned, cycling more power to the repulsorlifts to avoid hitting the walls. "<<We're going to run out of space real fast.>>" He was right. Though the tunnels were getting no narrower, they were growing tighter. Thankfully, warning signs saying 'CORE DO NOT TOUCH' were getting more prevalent. They were almost there.

Meanwhile in the plasma vent, sensors were reporting an abnormal build-up of heat, and there was definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. Just... not the relieving 'all done' sort. Oh no no no no, that'd be too convenient. Psi 1, oblivious or perhaps merely (stupidly) apathetic to the danger, let loose again into nothingness. The core was right ahead of them. And it was glowing. And because we're playing fast and loose with this idea the only way to avoid the flush that was to come was to be on the /other side/ of it. Time to GO!

ELSEWHERE:

"Did Psi 2 just crash?" asked the technician.

"If they handed out medals on Planet Obvious, you could compete in the Coruscant Games."

There was a moment of silence, punctuated only by the rambling from the man in the Firespray (which was blasting like a holoTV in the background) then the Base Commander spoke again. "You're right, though. Two wasn't enough. Scramble the Pinnoks and send them into the maintenance tunnel. How are firing checks going?"

"Warmup is almost complete, ignition in one minute."

"Good. Can someone turn that off, please? He's like a drill in each ear, with them meeting in the middle. And more caf. This one's cold."

[ Aubrei (Bre)]

"What is that..." Aubrei says to Zelo at seeing the light. Worry creases her brow right before she waggles her wings in response to being missed by their friend at the back. <"We here you Tarurra..Tar...Tar! We hear you, there is a light ...oh no no no. Tar move! Gun it as fast as you can and forget the guy behind us. We have to burn it.">

"Hang on Zelo...watch our shields." This last to the droid. This is going to be close and the residual energy from the weapon is messing with the radar. Sight is the only thing that is going to get them around.

"Krif, krif, krif..." its a chant as she sends the Hunting screaming forward.

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

"There had better be a prize at the end of this tunnel, that's all I'm going to say. I feel like I'm trying to go back where I came from." Belate's chirp...was, not safe for young ears. "Not there. And not where you came from either!" The fighter was getting a workout, banging and clattering against this side of the tunnel and that. It was like a game of space pinball, one at which Nerys clearly was trying to get the high score. She was winning, you guys! Look at all the sparks! Nerys: "Oof, that is going to need a //lot// of banging out." Fish: "Tell my mother I love her." Nerys: "You have a mother?"

[ Wrrlryyhn (Wrr)]

There was a reason Wrr had had a bad feeling about this. And the reason same in the form of firing blasts of plasma. She tried to accelerate and roll out of the path of burning death but it was too much at once, and her controls bleated angrily at her. Bacca, the R2, boopped an beeped, connecting with the Tarurrykam, to add a little boosted assistance, but would it be enough?

[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]

Zelo's mind travel's elsewhere as he looks ahead to the gleaming core ahead. This doesn't feel like a plasma vent as much as a plasma cannon they're flying down - in fact, his is what he imagines it looks like inside the barrel of his rifle just before the trigger is pulled. He bites back the urge to join in on the consideration of having a bad feeling about this. As Aubrei is calling to their wingmate, he's looking up the tunnel and already truly hanging on as instructed. The droids continue to tweep and boop behind them, an angry whistle coming from the BB unit in reply to R3ba. "That's plasma, I think. Pure plasma." Force help us, the Nautolan thinks to himself, but he has no touch on that intangible helper himself. His hands move to the controls in front of him as he tries to see past the glaring core, to make more details of the environment into which they speed.

"Krif, krif, krif," the pilot joins with the captain, his own hands closing on the co-pilot's controls. Is that a spot to the port, something they could duck into? He doesn't think to point it out - never interrupt a chant - but tries to steer them a little more in that direction. He ends up pointing, but even his cobalt blue hand is washing out in the blinding light ahead. As he looks down the barrel of a very large plasma core, Zelo's mind leaves the ship and takes up temporary residence on a beach in Pamarthe. Sorry... Zelo is not here right now. At least for a moment.

[ Saturi (Uri)]

<"We do have an exit strategy for this...?">

Saturi should have checked sooner. Her concerns intensify as the walls seem to close in on her. <"Right?"> She starts to think she should have asked sooner. The Pantoran was under the impression that it was a given that she would be coming back. The fighter is twisted into a position that makes it easy for her to avoid crashing with the walls. It helps that she isn't leading them through, allowing her more time to react to the turns that the tunnel has in store.

[ Tarion Tavers (TT)]

Somehow the Parallax manages to right itself, a testament to the ship's design more than the skills of its captain and pilot. <"Station commander! The price just went up to two hundred thousand, do you really think a bunch of freedom fighters can just hang out for free? In this economy?!"> The Parallax, designed for flight by a humanoid pilot with two hands, which is, when you get down to it, pretty inconsiderate, rockets ahead once more, one steady hand on the tiller.

<"I don't think he's listening to me, Yan, so it's back to whining in your general direction about the current state of affairs,"> the bounty hunter decides, pushing the throttle all the way to the max because he had bumped it with his knee in the excitement and lowered it to something sensible by mistake. <"One hundred thousand is half price for this job, from what the market demand dictates, it seems fair to me.">

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

"<<A what?>>"

B O O O O O O O O O O O O O M

An ungodly blast of STATION-DESTROYING POWER erupted from the CAVERNOUS BARREL of the ANNIHILATOR CANNON. It ripped a patch of DEEP SPACE completely in twain, and promised to RUIN THE DAY of anything caught in front of it for the next week, after which point the tightly concentrated plasma particles would likely reach peak dispersal and be less like STATION-DESTROYING POWER and more like A LIGHT SLIGHTLY-WARM BREEZE.

That's beside the point.

What is more pertinent are two things. One: The sudden groaning and creaking amongst the maintenance tunnels as the ships left inside are sploooched out into the central core. Two: The wave of highly caustic PLASMA WASH that burst out of the core and over the Pacifier, Gunship, and Planetary Fighter.

Imagine being smacked by a wave but in space. Shields were fried, hulls were peeled, systems were cooked. Psi 1, being poorly positioned, caught a huge amount of flack and was boldly forced back out of the tunnel and into open space, careening off into the ether. In the tunnels, the shockwave threw Heartbreak 1 into the wall, overwhelming his repulsors with a painful-sounding POP and bending the two portside S-foils outwards. This was followed by a /lot/ of unintelligible cursing over the comm. Now he was flying an X-X-Wing!

But they'd made it. Both tunnels led to a wide, cavernous room with space to streeeeeeeetch. In front of the mass of stricken damaged strike craft, glowing red from the heat, was a central support beam that held the core attached to the Cannon itself. Now, it just needed to be destroyed. "<<Torpedoes! Lasers! Harsh language!>>" Yan ordered! "<<Go go go!>>"

All of this cacophony masked the clutch of much smaller and inferior fighters taking off from the earlier landing pad and gunning their engines towards the maintenance tunnels. Would they make it in time?! Find out on the next episode of DRAGON BALL ZEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

ELSEWHERE: "Firing sequence complete, sir." panik.

"Did we get them?" calm.

"Confirming... no sir! They're in the core!" panik.

The control room erupted into bedlam, with not even the shouts from the base commander shutting them down. People grabbed personal items, caf cups, office supplies, and launched themselves at the doors. The every-man-for-himself mentality had taken over and no one was immune. "Evacuate..." murmured the commander, stunned that his first-ditch effort had failed. "EVACUATE. SOUND THE ORDER! GET OUT! GO GO GO!"

[ Aubrei (Bre)]

The Pacifier does not make it to the other side, not when it needs to. The rush of the plasma over the ship causes the radar to fizzle and become overwhelmed with static. Red warning lights are going off to the time of the klaxon that causes her to grimace. The belt around her keeps Aubrei in place but the brilliance of what was ahead of them has momemtarily blinded her. She pings off the side of the shiny wall and into the core - thankfully. The pacifier would be smoking if it could but space changes the dynamics of most things.

Blinking rapidly, Aubrei tries to focus when she hears the cry for firing. She sees the other ships and lets out a sound of relief even as their blob like shapes are hard to make out.

"I can hardly see anything..." But tracer fire is like brilliant lines and she centers the Pacifier on their impacted target.

"Fire Zelo, tell me where to go after, just in case." Just in case she can not see.

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

"**** me!" Fish whooped, as the Wayward Guardian, that was her name, rocketed out into the open air, and Nerys hit the throttle. With no walls around her, she was putting her foot to the floor trying to get them to the core before someone decided to overload it out of spite. It would be a sad way to die, fried at the end of the universe. Fish: "Just hold her steady, would you?" Now that the gunner was no longer in (as much) fear for his life, he went to work, his hands dancing over the controls of the slaved weapons systems, the ship's three cannons firing in quick succession. Nerys: "This is why I keep you around, Fish." Fish: "Not cause I'm that good looking?"

[ Wrrlryyhn (Wrr)]

The exterior of the Auzituck grew ablaze from the plasma onslaught. Systems fried. Paint peeled. Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! The Wookiee managed to get the ship under control as the R2 started in on repairs. Unsurprisingly, only one of her turrets struck, as the command came down to open fire. But one at least, did strike true.

[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]

Zelo looks to Aubrei as the light blast gets overwhelmingly bright, so he keeps some of his vision as the wash hits them and bucks them like the Black Ocean DOES have waves. The Nautolan is thankful for his harness, but he's definitely bruised under the Beskar and his skin is already flushing from the intense heat that luckily was tempered by the expenditure of their shields and the thermal resistance of the hull - now much in need of repair. A wordless shout gets out of him, and as the wave subsides, he's glad to find that he's still breathing and attached to a body - two signs of life he'll take. After a quick glance to Aubrei - a hand out to make sure she's still there and not just a voice he imagined in the wake of OMGBRIGHTEXPLOSION - Zelo gets back on track. "Yeah... I... Managed to only take it in one eye. Hold true, uptilt about five degrees, and..." It's narrow, with the spots in his eyes, but he manages to send some bolts... Roughly coreward.

"I got the cannons off. Peel to Port and roll up. We'll come about for another run and that should give your eyes time to clear." Behind them, the R3 unit whistles to itself and unplugs from the ports in protest. Meanwhile, intrepid green-and-gold BB unit is hard at work, trying to get systems back online as fast as it can. It likes this ship.

[ Saturi (Uri)]

Saturi emerges from the tunnel firing at the core of the massive cannon. She keeps the weapon's trigger depressed as she makes a complete run on the generator. Her eyes scan the flickering panel, looking for somewhere to exit from. The ship starts to turn away from the central corridor, aiming away in case someone else's firing does the trick. <"Let me know if I need to make another pass."> The Pantoran says over comms, only wanting to risk a minimum of her own skin.

[ Tarion Tavers (TT)]

Many things happen at once, and before Tarion can really process what's happening, the one-armed bounty hunter finds his ship spinning out into the great beyond, a cavity inside the asteroid where evidently the whole mechanism has its genesis. He takes his hand off the stick to straighten the silvery headset on his brow from its jostled position, glancing around at the various system readouts to make sure death is merely inevitable rather than imminent. Satisfied, the singular hand slides back around the stick.

<"Station commander, this is your last opportunity for the deal of a lifetime, and the price is now three hundred thousand credits, a great price! You wire the money to this account, and we all go home! You come out of this a hero, having saved the station and shown it takes more than idle threats to loosen the proverbial strings of your proverbial credit pouch! It's a win-win!"> Immediately after making the pitch, he angles the ship on a strafing-run course with the supports and shoves the throttle to three-quarters, the nose-mounted cannons lighting up with a characteristic rapid PEP-PEP-PEP-PEP of red plasma.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)] The twin streak of blue proton torpedoes fired from Heartbreak 1 impacted the central column alongside lasers, blasters, concussion missiles, and all sorts of ordinance. The support structure groaned harder than Kasia hearing about what Hex ate for dinner.

And then two more torpedoes, fired from the near-striken Pacifier, split it in twain.

A large, scorching red tube festooned in control surfaces and other greebles fell from above and into the earth, no longer suspended in the weapon. There was no boom.

"<<Run run run RUN RUN RUN!>>" Great instructions, Zhu Yan. "<<Out the plasma vent! Go!>>" Yeah good ide- what?! Hang on, if Yan was saying to go out the vent, then why had the T-70 angled and aimed itself STRAIGHT UP? There was now a hollow cavity that had formed when the central firing mechanism dropped into the depths, that joined on a harsh angle with the long twenty-five-metre wide aperture of the ANNIHILATOR CANNON. He was going to shoot himself out of the barrel, that dumbass!

There was a horrifying crunching noise.

There was a horrifying exploding noise.

To no one's surprise, temperature sensors started going haywire. The cavernous core started to glow red. This place was going to get /very/ hot /very/ fast.

ELSEWHERE:

"The Pinooks have cut and run, sir!"

"Why are you still working?!" hissed the caf-stained base commander. "We have to go, n-"

He didn't finish his sentence. About seventy-thousand degrees of drastically overcooked plasma wash made sure of that.

[ Aubrei (Bre)]

Half blinded still the call to go is heard. SHe orients herself knowing the way out was the way in and she guns the Pacifier once completely her one eighty. Aubrei glances towards Zelo for a split second and does not even register that others are going out a rather treacherous way. SHe hits the throttle as the ship leaps forward and heads back the way they had come.

"I need your eyes Zelo, let me know if I need to change route, I can see the outline of things."

She grips the controls, her skin going a little white from the straining. She narrows her gaze, trying to help her already strained sight.

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

"You think if we go through the venting the heat will smooth out all of the scrapes and scratches and no one will be the wiser?" Nerys was asking for a friend. A friend who most definitely had not borrowed the Mr.'s ship without asking him. Fish: "I'm going to die." Nerys, not waiting to get the consensus of the room, yanked hard on the controls, the Guardian shooting off at an angle sharp enough to plaster her back into the seat as the ship shot off towards the plasma vent, Belate's screaming filling the cockpit from where he was still locked to the flooring. He was too young to die, you guys! "Not today." And then the ship shot into the vent, its engines flaring as she pushed the ship to its maximum speed, trying to get clear of the growing ball of impending doom behind them.

[ Wrrlryyhn (Wrr)]

Wrr warbled and ranted in her smoking Auzituck. And not smoking in a good way. Go back through the plasma vent?! They just, barely, got out of there! Slamming her ship into reverse, and wheeling it about for the worst space u-turn ever, she skimmed and skid back they way they had come. Good thing most of the paint was already scoured off by the plasma. Wait.. that meant it was hull getting chipped at. Plunk, clunk, 'what was that?' but they got out of there. Mostly in one piece.

[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]

Zelo nods, also tapping Aubrei on her beskar pauldron to acknowledge. "Copy that, Aubrei. You're true to course. It's just like the way in, but nobody's chasing us in. Three-count, then fourty-five to starboard and..." He holds a hand over his plasma-washed eye and focuses the one with the best vision. "Maybe about twenty-five degrees up." He looks on the one working sensor, thanks to the BB unit, and then shakes his head. "I'll give you more corrections as needed. Now... One, two... Three!" Total faith from the co-pilot. Tweeps and boops from behind, where the BB unit is still working away on the Hunting Gravitation and the R3 continues to lecture it about... Well, something. In Binary.

"No obstructions. Smooth sailing, Captain." Totally fine, normal sailing, not likely to have a tailwave detonation or anything.

[ Saturi (Uri)]

Nobody had to tell Saturi twice to bail. She finishes the turn towards the plasma vent and punches the thrusters to full. Her focus is kept on the smoothed walls, which are beginning to glow ominous hues. The instrument panel ceases to flicker, the circuits and stars aligning to give her a clear picture on how to navigate through the escape. The Pantoran relaxes back into her seat.

[ Tarion Tavers (TT)]

It's not abundantly clear Tarion even knows what he's doing here; the bounty hunter has been broadcasting on the wrong channel the entire mission, he showed up late to begin with, and he's just been following dumbly in the same direction the others have gone. How often does he do this, one has to wonder? Show up barely invited, pretend to belong, and demand money at the end? It's impossible to say.

<"Oh krif yeah, that did it- wait, /krif/ that did it, we gotta /go,/" he exult-realizes in rapid succession, eyes widening as he leans forward against the restraints that hold him to the table-chair he pilots from to look for a way out.

Seeing no obvious exits, because he is demonstrably terrible at this, he jams the throttle back to full and rockets straight up, the Parallax doing the same lazy pinwheeling as when it dove in to begin with, but this time it's not on purpose, it's just dragging that damaged wing. The mechanical walls get tighter, tighter... very tight. There is no room for error, and his one hand is QUIVERING, fighting with the drag.

The damaged wing snags as the barrel narrows into what is now clearly the barrel of the cannon, and like a pinball the ship rattles rapidly against the mega-powered-laser-cannon-techno-version of rifling, a ball of blue shields flaring and sparks flying as it somehow continues forward. <"TELL MY BANK I LOVED THEM,"> that annoying voice shouts, just before the smoking shell of the ship finally hurtles out the end, free, into the great blackness of space. The edges of the bell-shaped hull are looking a bit like a famous one in Philadelphia, and that damaged wing is /gone/, but a rattled, hollow laugh rings out over the open comms.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

Explosions engulfed the spindly frame of the ANNIHILATOR CANNON as the fire control mechanisms COOKED OFF EXPONENTIALLY within the power core. Eruptions of blue and orange plasma consumed the weapon and the contents within as the indescribable power haemmorhaged out the only orifices it could find: the maintenance tunnels, the plasma vents, and the barrel itself.

Most of the team wisely decided to escape out the relatively safe way, through the plasma vent. Aside from the buffetting Wrr's gunship took on the way out, they escaped limping, damaged, but mostly alive. The two fools who decided to take the unwise option had mixed luck. Zhu Yan's bent X-Wing fired itself out ahead of the plasma wake, but the Parallax was /shot/ out in its stricken state. The pilot was clearly going to have to pay a lot of money to see Jehni'va Cihn at Shug Ninx's Spacebarn!

"<<Okay, well, job done, I think we're clear.>>" There was a loud GROOOOOAAAAAAANNNNN as the barrel of the Annihilator Cannon fell into the maelstrom. "<<Yeah we're clear. Let's go home.>>"