Log:Rebellion: Hold the Line Part II SFC Fight

Wraith Squadron receives orders to take out Clemency

OOC Date: December 27, 2024
Location: High Orbit above Ithor
Participants: Bar'duur, Jessika Pava, Alys Zapal, Hadrix Kora, Dailo Fett

The battle has been underway for more than a hour. Capital ships from the Empire have been trading blows with the Rebel Fleet, and it's not been without its casualties. With many of the Rebel flight squadrons locked in awful dog fights, a special operations mission has come down for Task Force WRAITH to target a retreating Star Destroyer named Clemancy. Her shields are already buckled, hull heavily battered and on fire in many cases.

The problem?

Two Imperial squadrons (Spider and Beta) run a screen to protect the retreating vessel. Led by a Sith, Alys Zapal, the pair of squadrons maintain a protective posture around their craft, intercepting any that come within range.

Coming into range now is WRAITH Squadron, led by Colonel Jessika Pava. They navigate through the battle, weaving between vessels trading shots at one another and dodging explosions. One might mistake their heartbeat for the sound of war drums.. It's absolute chaos.

<<"This is Wraith Two, standing by..">>

Wraith Squadron was a last minute addition from Admiral Ackbar at the outset of the conflict, leaping in to relieve the battle tested Rebel Squadrons that have been engaged with the Imperials through out the intense dogfight battle. The husks of dozens, upon dozens, of both TIE Fighters and X-Wings dot space around the massive Mon Cal cruisers. Immediately upon jumping into the Ottega System, Wraith One initiates it's s foils and zips off through the debris field.

<"This is Wraith One. All Wraiths, you have your marching orders. Our target is the Clemancy.">

A barrel roll through the remains of an X-Wing, pilot in evosuit visible against the black by the flash of a yellow beacon signal. "Aone, mark that pilot for retrieval." A beep from the console. <"Wraiths on me for attack pattern. Looks like the Clemancy is about to jump, but sensor scans show the hyperdrive is heavily damaged so they're not getting very far. We'll give chase them down and go stink on poodoo. Lots of eyeballs out here, so stay frosty.">

Alys, Acolyte of the Sith Empire, present leader of Spider Squadron (Which is usually just Lambda squadron, but she's got a Thing) leads the swarm of her squadron from her not at all custom TIE Silencer. These things are rough to fly unless you're very good or Force Sensitive.

She's both, actually.

Sealed in her flightsuit and helmet, she twists a knob and pushes the throttle harder, breathing calmly as the Force guides her through the skirmish. Hopefully it'll be enough.

You know how the Empire tolerates failure. <<"Wraith Six, standing by.">>

Grumbled over comms, the heavier shape of an old Firespray class moving at the rear of the pack for Wraith squadron as they make their entrance. Within the craft, Hadrix's astromech stands locked into place in a side console, probes connected and reading data while the bigman adjusts his settings.

Panels opening when Pava gives instructions, a foot pedal is pressed and slid forward to engage weapon systems; a quintet of multi-barreled cannons rotating out and beginning to spin up in preparation.

<<"Pursuit, copy.">>

<<"Wraith three, standing by.">>

This voice is a deep males, and is accompanied by a low whine in the background, that of tie engines.

Third in the line of mixed vessels, an old Tie Avenger keeps up with the group, painted quite a lot like it would have been in the days when it was one of the most advanced ships in the galaxy, aside from the small red phoenix of rebellion painted on either side.

<<"Copy That.>>

As Wraith comes within sensor range, Beta and Spider squadron are alerted. Both sides are aware of one another, and thus the initial joust begins. Fighters square up, s-foils lock into attack position, and hardpoints deploy upon those fighters that conceal their weapons. Colonel Pava has a projected read out on squadron readiness that she can reference, and she's seeing green across the board.

Alys has something similar with Beta and Spider squads, respectively.

Closing the distance between the two, the fighting begins.

No sooner does Spider and Wraith squadron meet up to dance that Wraith 9 is just... gone. Literally, there was a pilot back to her right flying in an attack formation and then there was bits of an x-wings S-foils exploding out from the sudden expulsion of hypermatter fuel. "Son of a b-..." Jess glances back over her shoulder to see if anything survived, but nothing survived. "Who gave these psychos Silencers?" If she hadn't already lined up her shot on Spider 6, there is a zero percent chance Jess wouldn't have circled back on Alys.

That's still happening, hold onto your butts.

<"Alright boys and girls, we've got two squadrons headed our way, so let's go nuts to butts. Watch your wing man's six because we're about to be in a shooting gallery.">

Jess twists her X-Wing like an extension of her body, as comfortable in the cockpit of the T-85 as she is in a pair of worn in pants. The good kind with the draw string on the front that you wear while watching your favorite holodrama when you should absolutely be retired. Only you're not retired?

The X-Wing looses a quad blast of lasers that have the shields on Wraith 6 flickering, but Wraith Leader is already circling around, tracking the Silencer. Physically glancing over her shoulder when the entirety of Spider Squadron zips around the viewports.

The conflict begins, and Alys reaches her senses out, feeling the flow of the Force through the void of space. Not for the first time does she wish that Battle Meditation was something they taught her. She'll just have to, ugh, trust her underlings to do their jobs while she does hers.

Business as usual as the Middle Management of the Empire.

She jerks hard on the control yoke, forcing the Silencer into a roll, the heavy BLAT BLAT BLAT of her cannons lancing out green into the cosmos. Lancing out and deleting Wraith Nine in one volley. She wheels the ship around, gritting her teeth as she forces the incredibly fast fighter to move even faster, using the Force to make sure she can stay conscious through the G Forces.

One of his displays shows the loss of a friendly and scrolling reports transcribed to text scroll on another - feeding to his visor amidst the jumble of other reads Hadrix has spent decades learning how to utilize without truly focusing on them. The heavy pursuit craft wheeling into a 'dive' when one of the assailants tries to draw a bead on him.

Looking only to displays, lacking the wrap-around cockpit of a standard fighter, the big man's gaze is on forward, side and rear displays in a truncated screen just below his transparisteel viewport. Attempting to haul over and the fifteen barrels on pivot mounts attempt to track the smaller craft. To no avail.

A solid line of crimson coherent energy from the sheer amount of firepower being launched cutting through open space.

When you've been around as long as Bar'duur, you gather as many tricks and tips as you can. Male flying the tie avenger looks around as well, and while the ties are not known for their ease of view, he wears a suit that provides quite a bit more situational awareness than he might otherwise have. He mutters to himself, fortunately he switched his comms off, he's done /that/ before.

As he picks up a target he pulls his flight controls to the side and back, and his avenger screams up and over, rolling as it goes, and avoiding the shots that were aimed where he might have been, if his responses were a bit slower.

A random target appears in his immedeate frame of view, and he angles for a pop-shot, firing three green blasts of plasma and missing the enemy tie, a tie of a much newer design of course. "Just a cheap copy ol' girl." He mutters to his avenger.

The initial joust sees an immediate death from Wraith Squadron as Alys Zapal picks their fighter apart with the heavy cannons of a TIE Silencer. It's a somber reality, being in a fighter squadron, but it IS the reality. Meanwhile, the two squadrons square off and begin slugging at one another. Wraith comes out better, and Spider has several fighters that are hurting.

From Wraith: Wraith Four and Seven have damaged shields.

From Spider: Spider 2 and 7 have damaged shields, and Spiders 3, 6, 8, and 19 have lost shields and taken hull damage.

Dailo brings her fighter about, her helmeted head using the tracking mechanism that has lowered over her eye. "Where do you think you are going vittle eyeball.." She says, accent heavy thanks to emotions running high at an immediate loss. She suppresses her feelings as best she can, but it's only going to get worse.

"Ailee, lock down those shields for me." The droid behind Jess beeps acknowledgement and starts rerouting power from redundant systems to reestablish shield integrity, which blinks back to full just as the X-Wing is whistling past the TIE Fighter that caused all this. The red of lasers shave across the enemies shields close enough to fry ozone, but not to do any real damage.

"Oh we're not finished." She says to herself in a whisper, cutting the snub nosed fighter around easily in space. The view of it is intense to those unused to starfighter combat. Dozens of TIE Fighters and X-Wing's around the husk of a Star Destroyer just visible in the distance. Fires slow glowing as oxygen leaches out of damaged hull.

Feels like home to Wraith One.

<"Anyone got eyes on that Silencer?">

All fighters are dangerous, but that thing?

That thing and Hadrix's Firespray

Are weapons of mass destruction on this kind of battlefield

The Silencer's cannons blat again, but the shots go wide, rocketing out to take out some innocent Purrgil or something.

That doesn't matter. What matters is her squadron is getting shredded. SHREDDED. "Get your heads in this, or you won't survive long enough to be punished for your failure!"

A motivational speaker, she is not. Still, the squadron seems to try and pull itself together, covering the heavily damaged ships and doing their best to fight back. It's still not looking promising.

Instinctively ducking his head and shifting in his seat when the Silencer is alerted to be coming at him by Heyuu, the Mandalorian slams the control yolk to one side forcing his craft into a lateral flip - directional thrusters firing. His inertial dampeners forcing themselves back to standard, for a moment, to keep Hadrix's vision from graying out in one eye - the Arkanian genetic modifications injected into him begin doing their work. <<"Silencer is on Six, shields holding.">>

Pacing his heartrate to keep flow even in narrowed arteries, jostled in his seat when emerald cannon fire smashing into shields and causing the droid to wail in panic,

<"Reroute and leave it to me."> Bitten out as the big man dips and sweeps after the foe that struck him. Cannons opening up again with a blazing BRA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA as the TIEs shields begin to grow more and more opaque. Shattering and then hull plates being slagged by the persistent onslaught, flash freezing in the void like some holotoon wind lines in the wake of the fighter.

"I might as well be target saturation." Mutters the horned man, wearing his high-vis flight suit, flying an antique fighter that fortunately, can still keep up with the fighters of the day. The tie avenger designated as Wraith 3 scoots and shifts.

He stays on target, on the fourth tie of the enemy squadron. Sure, he'd considered other targets, but 'Spider 4' is right there, so he takes another shot, another four blasts of green plasma, to no avail, even as his ship twists and shifts to avoid incomming shots. "Stay on it stay on it." He mutters as he keeps moving and shifting, trying to fly erraticly, while keeping an eye on his target. <<"Wraith three, no visual on silencer.">>

The fight continues. Fighters whipping about to and froe, cannons tearing into shields or worse; as is the case for Spider 10, who is picked apart by Wraith 8. Wraith is still coming out on top, the fighter pilots proving their mettle despite being outnumbered.

From WRAITH: Wraith 4 and 7 have damaged shields.

From Spider: 2, 9, and 12 have damaged shields. Spiders: 3, 6, 7, and 8 are without shields and heavy hull damage. Spider 10 was destroyed.

Alys Zapal's comms crackle to life just now, the Coruscanti accented pilot informing her that, <<"Spider Leader, this is Beta Leader. We have been sent to reinforce your position, my Lord. We will be there shortly (next round.)">>

Meanwhile, Colonel Pava is informed from one of the tactical officers overseeing the battle. <<"Wraith Leader, you have an additional enemy squadron joining your fight. How goes your mission progress, ma'am?">>

<"Rebel Tactical, this is Wraith One. Thanks for the heads up on second squadron contact."> Jess whirls her fighter in an effortless series of over under side rolls to the right, as Spider Six zooms past and cuts wide to line a shot, then left when Spider Eleven joins. "Oh you plucky thornbat.. Don't you go anywhere, you hear me?" Obviously the TIE pilot can't hear her. <"What was that, Wraith One?">

<"Nothing. Mission is staled, tactical. Looks like they had one of the big guns come in to fly defensive screen on the Clemancy repairs. Actually, belay that. I have an idea."> She left out 'stupid' before 'idea'.

It's right back to the Resistance days where she's not in charge of a bunch of people and was afforded a level of brazen stupidity that bordered on suicidal. <"Wraith Five, Wraith Seven, you're on me. Confirm."> <"Wraith Five confirm."> The B-Wing pulls in behind the T-85. <"Wraith Seven confirm."> The second B-Wing falls in.

Jess zooms ahead, 'straight for' Beta Squadron. <"Soon as I've got their attention, make a run for the Clemancy. Wraith Two, you've got command. Confirm.">

"Aight, Ailee, time to pick a fight."

Beepbeep confirmation.

Alys swears as she misses again. She hasn't taken a single hit, but she also hasn't erased but one bloodline from the Galaxy with the power of the Silencer. <<Form up again. Follow my lead.>>

The Sith wheels the Silencer around and makes another pass, once more missing wildly. Luckily the Spiders seem to be holding their own, more or less. Her head swivels as a T-85 and two B-Wings start to head for the Clemency. She swears again. <<New plan. Keep in formation, Beta will be joining you soon. I'm going to deal with -those-.>>

The furball has becoming a set of looping chases as Hadrix's assailant and target weave around one another - the Kuat designed patrol craft hurtling through a corkscrewing spiral that leaves TIE fire bracketing it. A droid-probe like jack within his helmet drops as the pupil of his bionic eye irises open and the big man hisses around the taste of metal.

Fed by the myriad of bionics that have been installed within him over the years blending with Arkanian Genotech, the big man's hands go primarily to flying while he direct links for firing solutions, body tensing on the verge of seizure while the ship cannons continue to shriek - warning lights of threatened overheat glaring across his screens.

Heiyuu continues to warbling about power issues before the big man snaps out, <"Get the kriffing shields up you bucket of bolts!">

The tie avenger keeps weaving, even as a few shots buzz right along it's shields, casting a unique violet shimmer along the hull. "Oooh." Emits Bar'duur, fortunately with his comms off. No that won't do, get back in the game. He's still on Spider four, lining up his next shot and this time all four cannons strike the enemy tie, wearking it's shields to nearly failure. "I'm coming for you." he mutters gruffly in Zabraki, before he clears his throat, turning his gaze enough to spot wraith 1 and her escorts. <<"Copy, Wraith Leader">>

The battle is looking one-sided, Wraith picking out several kills in the passing seconds. TIEs and INCOM fighters whip back and forth in a hornet's nest of violence and red and green lances.

From Wraith, Wraith 4 has repaired their shields, while Wraith 7 is still partly damaged. With the absence of a killed Wraith 9, the rest of the squadron is still up.

Spider Squadron suffered a number of losses: 6, 7, 8, and 10 are all dead. Spiders: 2, and 12 have damaged shields, and Spiders: 3, 4, and 9 have no shields with hull damage. Only Spiders: 1 (Alys), 5, and 11 have managed to come out unscathed so far.

Dailo's E-wing picks apart Spider Eight, the vessel exploding just after her fighter thrusts by it. <<"Wraith Two copies Wraith Leader. Good luck, Colonel. -- All Call signs, let us encourage our current foes into the incoming squadron and sow confusion, yes?">>

Alys receives a communication from Beta Leader, <<"We have arrived. Joining the fight now, my Lord.">>

A fresh squadron (Beta 1-12) join the battle.

"Here comes that Sith spawn Silencer." Shooting at her bombing company. Jess peels her lips back from her teeth and drops the power to forward engines enough to flip the snub nose fighter on forward thrusters. It goes from flying in one direction, to flying upside down in another. Which is all relative because there's no 'direction' in space. All that matters, really, is that she was --> one second and <-- the next. Smooth as bantha milk.

And barrelling up on Arys like the Bantha bull protecting the herd.

Do X-Wings fire as much as this one is?

The quad lasers are letting loose an absolute barrage of red at the agile Imperial fighter, <"Wraith 5 and 7, finish the bombing runs, I'll keep them off you as long as I can, but that Destroyer does /not/ leave system.">

Now it's a race against the clock. Protect the Bombers, by picking a fight with the pissed off Hornet.

"Alright, let's do this shiv."

<"I don't speak tech, what're wrong with my shields?">

The big man's question answered with whistles, bips and blats that would set Hadrix's head shaking if he weren't trying to keep himself moving. Managing to barely slip past another pair of craft that have taken interest in the Firespray class. <<"Wraith Leader, I'm getting power issues across the board...">

Spider Two is hauled into his targeting brackets with the groan of hydraulics and crackle of electrical systems complaining, virulently.

<"I told you full diagnostics. Does this look like full diagnostics were performed?"> The answer being an indignant, raspberry like, blat mixed with bass tones and a digital snarl. <"Fine excuse. I should've turned you into an ash tray..." Thumbs pressing the buttetfly to let loose with the rotary cannons once more - the movements of his right eye guiding the swiveling mounts. Until a loud 'WHOMP' sounds within the ship.

Heyuu's panic cries barely carrying over and then drowned out by Hadrix's response, a bomb going off even though his voice never raises above, stern, conversational.

<"The shield systems are down... and you overloaded weapons... trying to re-route..."> Turned enough in his raised seat to look sidelong at the droid, his left arm and the same side of his helmet sheathed in fire that Gripper has begun attending with the ship extinguisher. The concentrated fire suppressant frosting his armor and helmet. Its smoke blending with the slowly quenching fire.

At least he managed to get one.

<<"Lead, Six. Splash one. My shields are falling offline and my weapon circuits and capacitors have blown out. I need to evade and RTB.">> Already banking to get away from the furball where he has become a liability.

<"I hate you..."> switching back to his helmet vocalizer, off comms, speaking pointedly at the R2 unit.

Alys opens fire on one of the bombers and, somehow misses wildly again! Her teeth grind under her helmet as her frustration builds. It's a double edged sword. Her anger gives her power, but it saps her focus. Power won't do her any good unless she leaps out into space and tries to fight Fighters with a Lightsaber.

Then she'd just die.

Speaking of dying, the T-85 opens fire. the Acolyte rolls around the first blast without thought. The second catches her before she can react, making her swear. Her hands move on their own, firing the topside thrusters and forcing the Silencer down. Relative down, anyway.

"Red Eye, get our shields back!"

The droid whistles primly and sets to work.

Now there are two of them.

For some reason that echos through Bar'duur's mind just as two laser bolts sizzle in his rear shield. The Zabrak piloting the tie avenger stays on the more dangerous foe, or at least the one that seems more dangerous, Spider four. He lines up his next run, and the hits he took seem worth it in a way, as he lights that one up. "There we go." he says just before he pulls back on the stick then to the side in a quick roll before he pushes forward vigorously to zip off in a seemingly random direction, to shake off his attacker, and find his next target..

MEANWHILE IN BOMBER TOWN

Wraith Five and Seven streak out ahead of the screen Wraith Leader is providing. Twisting their B-Wings through the fighters of Beta Squadron towards the looming structure of the Clemancy Star Destroyer. As they near the massive, damaged, beast they break off in two different directions to pass one another as they skirt the feiry surface amidst point defense guns. There's not as many as the Destroyer would usually be able to field because they're running on the lowest possible power settings while undergoing repairs.

Each B-Wing swoops low in their position.

<Wraith Five bombs away.> <Wraith Seven bombs away.>

The explosions are as glorious as they are short-lived before the void of space gobbles up the flames. Hitting at structurally weakened hull plating. Sections of of durasteel blows away as another breach in the hull erupts inward under the concussive force. The Clemancy isn't destroyed, but it sure did feel that. B-Wings wrap around to make another pass.

With the bombing run underway, the Wraith mission had finally progressed. Despite slugging it out with two squadrons, Colonel Pava had led her bombers through the screen to begin a bombing run, something that the Clemancy obviously felt as bombs began to hit the hull surface and cause massive damage.

Meanwhile, Wraith continues to hold out against Spider and Beta Squadrons. Receiving a bit more damage overall, the group was still giving more than they got.

Wraith: Wraith 3 (Bar), 4, 7, and 8 have shield damage. The rest of the squadron are still up.

Spider Squadron: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are dead. Spider Leader has shield damage, and Spiders 5 and 11 are unscathed as of yet. Spider 12 is without shields and sustaining hull damage.

Beta Squadron: Beta 9 and 12 have shield damage, with the rest of the squad still fresh!

One pass and the T-85's shields blink out completely, "Damn that thing hits like a freight hauler." Jess gripes, but Ailee is terrified. "Just get us enough shields to tank one more hit, Ailee, the Force is with us." What she doesn't know is that it's actually with Alys. Literally. As she whirls the fighter around with a shudder in the pedals from from where the Silencer cut straight through her shields and left scorch marks on the back half of the engines.

"Got some wobbling in my pedals, but we're good."

Ailee beeps, still anxious, and sets to work rerouting power. It's not as much as either of them would hope, but they do, at least, come back online. "Lining up my shot..." The quad lasers lance out and hit the speedy fighter. Keeping her engaged while the bombers continue to run passes on the Clemancy. Which desperately wants to jump out of system, but hasn't finished repairs.

<"Wraith Two, get the squadron ready to fall back. We'll need a lane cleared for the bombers.">

There's acknowledgements from the swooping B-Wings as they keep launching their payload. After the second sweep, the Destroyer is barely functional and far too damaged for repairs without a space-dock. It's not destroyed, but it's just a metal target at this point. <"Good hits, Wraiths, one more pass and we're out of here. We've made our point.">

In a game of Starfighter Chicken, Alys barrels straight for Jessika and her T-85. The heavy cannons BLAT BLAT in the void of space and strike!

Too bad she gets hit in return.

The Force fails her, her anger too great to give her the focus she needs for the incredibly technical skills of piloting the Silencer. With a growl and a curse (Plus a look on her feeds about how the capital ship fight is going (not great)), she wrenches on the yoke of her starfighter and starts to pull away. She drives the throttle forward and the Silencer rockets off.

<<Pull out, we've lost. I will take responsibility,>> she says over Imperial comms.

The lone fighter in Spider squadron peels off to follow her. Beta, well. Beta will do what they want since they aren't hers.

Another devastating bomb run sees a portion of the Clemancy blown off. Blown off. Blown the REKK OFF! The explosion is massive, and the culprits can be seen getting chased by a pair of TIEs a piece, the green lances hitting EVERYWHERE but the bombers responsible.

<<"We'll see the job done, Wraith Leader. Stand by.">> Responded Wraith Five, his graveled Corellian accent laced with all the confidence in the world.

<<"We're not leaving without you, Wraith Leader. I'm closing in to help you out, Colonel!">> Dailo responds just after ending another of Spider's squad with a series of blasts. She engages her afterburners in an effort to cut through the screen to help her unit's commander.

Wraith is still holding out: Wraith 1 (Jess), 3 (Bar), 4, 7, and 8 all have shield damage. The rest of the squad (except 9) are up!

Spider Squadron has Spiders: 1 (Alys) with shield damage, and Spider 5 unscathed as of yet.

Beta Squadron: 2, 9, and 12 have Shield Damage, with Beta 10 at no shields and hull damage. The remainder of Beta Squadron are up and still in the fight.

<"Hell yeah Wraith bombers!"> Comes the Colonel's voice across comms as she circles around following the break away of Beta and Spider Leader. The inclination to give chase is there, but she still feels the rattling in her pedals. It started slowly, just a little jink when she used her right side thrusters, but one of the hard point turns to keep the speedy Silencer in sights must have knocked something loose after the pulverizing hit thrown at her early in the bombing run screen.

"Ailee, can you run a diagnostic on my thruster controls? They're a little unresp-"

Only the black out shielding on the visor of her helmet protects her eyes when the bottom right fuselage explodes in a brilliant display of rapidly heated tybian gas and hypermatter fuel. With her teeth clinching, Jess grips the control yolk in both hands, white knuckled trying to keep the front of the snub nose level.

Each time she reaches out to adjust the power levels away from the damaged engine, the X-Wing veers dangerously close to one of the far planets of the Ithorian sector. <"Wrai- -e to R-el T-- Go-- down.">

The damaged, exploded fuselage sets of a chain reaction. "Ailee, do something." it's a good thing that nobody can hear her, the terror in her voice. It's muted, but she's old and battle hardened. That doesn't mean the thought of blowing up in space isn't a truely horrifying thought.

"Ailee?"

No beeps.

A glance back and the whole back end of her X-Wing is on fire.

"Shi--"

Wraith One hits the atmosphere of the moon like a bullet into ballistics gel.

Despite the overwhelming and valiant defense from Spider and Beta squadrons, Wraith squadron's bombers found a way through the screen and deposited their bombs. With the final run complete, the bombs triggered a chain reaction beneath the surface of the exterior hull, and seconds later, the Clemency silently exploded. Ships in the battle experienced intense kinetic waves that shook their foundation, but otherwise left them unharmed. Ships near the Clemency were not so lucky.

The explosion was slow to shrink, and pieces of the ship began to submit to the gravitational pull of Ithor. Large chunks of hull plummeted toward the surface, her fuselage blown in thirds.

Wraith Squadron's job was not done, though. Rather than retreat, the small team followed their crash-landing commanding officer to the surface, the squadron appearing as nothing more than meteors in the atmosphere as they chased Colonel Pava.

Any congratulations they might have received was reduced to static thanks to re-entry.