Star Wars STAR WARS: INTERVENTION (A story-telling style OT starfighter game)---Always taking new players!

IC: Sergeant Twenty-One (DLT-5921), SG-12 ("Twelve"), Benny (BNY-1114), Mekuun Hoverscout
Location: Port Haven


The Monster Squad sergeant had gotten used to the bucking motion of the hovercraft, and now had negotiated his armoured backside into one of the bucket chairs serving the Imperial Intelligence computers, and was using one to talk to his lieutenant.

"Are you still looking for her?" Seventy-Nine's voice demanded over the speakers. "Sun's coming up for frag's sake; you said you'd be half-an-hour, tops! Thank frag Hatcher hasn't thought to ask me about the Hand yet."

"Who the hell's Hatcher?" Twenty-One wanted to know.

"Imperial Army Major General. Just landed. I've got Twenty-One-"

"Yeah?"

"The other Twenty-One, TL-6321, running interference, just in case."

The stormtrooper sighed. "This flooding ravine is bigger inside than it appears on a holo'. It's like a fething TARDIS."

"What's a tardis?"

"Dunno, it just sounded like something interesting to say. Add to that, this Saber Guard keeps getting distracted." He reached up to twist the flexible neck of the voice-pickup towards the silver-armoured SG-12, who unwittingly obliged with another cry of frustration:

"Oh what! Now they've nicked my shuttle! She'll be up on bricks by time I get her back."

Twenty-One rolled his eyes, and bent the voice-pickup back to himself. "See what I mean, Sir? Attention span of a fething blister gnat."

"Hey! I am right here!" Twelve reminded, a warning note in his voice as the light from his T-visor bathed the stormtrooper's helmet.

"Well keep your mind on the job. Any sign of the Hand?"

"Oh, her." His ardour to rescue the Force Sensitive child had dimmed with the attacks on his assets back on the beach. He stepped up to the row of rectangular windows on the right side of the cabin, and pointed out. "She's out there, behind that rock."

"Hold here, Cabbie!" Twenty-One called cheekily to Gibbons and Tozzi up front in the drivers' cab, then turned to his seatrooper counterpart. They could feel the craft slowing and settling on the surface of the river. "Benny, you are up."

BNY-1114, the only one of them dressed for underwater travel, grabbed a blocky white plastic medikit wrapped in plast..uh..wrap, climbed out of the hatch, and promptly dove over the side, accompanied by an audible splash.

By the time the Saber Guard and Twenty-One had struggled through the tight hatch, outside the cabin, and standing atop the hoverskirt's inflated orange skirts, Benny's propulsion boots had him scraping onto the slanted set of wet pebbles where the water was lapping, and as he clambered to his white-padded knees, and hauled the medikit out of the water, he spared a hand to push back his binocular-visor, and pull the ventilator tube from his mouth, so he could grin up at the crouching red-head. Water dribbled down his chin.

"Hello there, it's okay, we are here to rescue you. "

"Hey, that's my line!" Twelve protested from the Mekuun, which had stopped several metres away from the shore. Too far for a non-Force-enhanced person to jump. He softened his tone to address the young girl. "Now don't worry, Pet. Your Uncle Twelve has come to save you."

At his right elbow, Twenty-One felt a little miffed. This was his rescue mission, and yet he had been beaten to the words by TWO people. What was the point in repeating them? He met Jade's gaze and shrugged resignedly as Benny draped a foil blanket round her shoulders. "I'm Spartacus."

Tag: Mara Jade / Emperor's Hand

OOC: Jade won't be a Skywalker for a few years yet.

---

IC: Yavscout "Safety", Tunare black N-1 starfighter
Location: Whendyll System outskirts



Yavscout was thrown about in his cockpit a bit as the shockwave from the detonation of the April Dancer occurred behind them. "Wow. Someone must have left the gas on." He murmured to himself.

He could see from his forward scanning, that his fighter, along with the Mako and the Z-95, were gaining steadily on the Gamma-class assault transport.

He commed the SGIS vessel, and briefed them in on what he needed.

Over the squad frequency, it sounded like Firecracker and Mac had stopped flirting for a second. Must be serious. He redirected his sensors to see what was going on. Hello, incoming TIEs.

Fress voice sounded over the squad frequency. "All right, this is our best shot. All squadrons follow me."

"Cochise to Safety, been ordered elsewhere. Continue on mission or should I move to engage the new targets?""

"Continue on mission, Cochise. Mission parameters have changed. The Imperial transport ahead is not to reach our cruiser. You, me, and the Mako are to engage on my mark." The elf glanced out the side of his canopy at the Z-95. "How do you copy, Cochise?"

Tag: Cochise, Mac

 

IC: Cain Varss
Whendyll System outskirts

Cain followed orders, as he was trained to do. The Imperial Navy had made sure of that, much to his own...discomfort.

"How do you copy, Cochise?"

"Copy Safety, guarding Mako and preping for attack run." Cain saw it and knew what it was before his sensors did. It was a Gamma-class assault shuttle. It contained spacetroopers. Cain had always regarded them as a particularly nasty and suicidal bunch. This coming from a former TIE pilot. He knew the goal instantly, without having to remember back to comm chatter. If there were spacetroopers, it meant boarding and acquiring a vessel. In this case, it seems it would be re-acquiring.

Cain kept his Z-95 on Safety's wing, simultaneously guarding the Mako. "Cochise to Safety, I have plenty of missiles waiting for that shuttle at your order."

Tag: Sith-I-5, CPL_Macja, others maybe

 

IC: Fress Colias
Whendyll System

"Cochise, stay with Safety and watch his back. Rogue, do you have any missles on you?" Fress questioned as she led the others towards an intercept course to the TIE bombers.

:IC Seria Trasks

"I do Firecracker, do you want me to help guard Mako, helping Safety and Cochise?" Seira questioned with a frown as she followed Fress under the battle. Pretty sneaky, she had to admit but it did keep them out of sight of lasers from the larger Imperial ships.

"Yes I do, watch their backs. Good luck," Fress answered as Seira changed course and tracked an N1 headed in a different direction. She pushed her fighter towards the N1 and other Z-95 head hunter.

"Safety, Firecracker asked me to take your other wing guarding the Mako."

Sith-I-5, kommando104

 

IC: Josch Decinchi alias Zieleb-Xan ‘Mac’ Macja
Whendyll System

“Bridge this is Mac. I am going to pop over the top here and try to draw the attention of the Gamma creeping up on us. Over?”

“Copy that Mac.” the Bridge confirmed.

The Arrow of Light sat about one hundred meters above the hard deck of the DD. Josch sat in his cockpit and listened to the music flowing from the Force. He listened for the right notes, the precise combination of melody and harmony, which told him it was time to strike. The music grew to a crescendo as the Dancer flared into oblivion. He took a deep breath, and as he exhaled he said, “Well here goes nothing.”

He switched his shields full front as he dropped the nose down, looping around to the underside of the DD, belly to belly with the interdictor. He faced the Gamma while he was upside down, relative to her, and let loose his remaining three missiles as he drifted forward at quarter speed. Once the final missile cleared his launchers he would then turn towards the rear of the interdictor, reversed the direction of his shields to aft, and jammed his throttle full open to burn starlines back to the bulk of the squadron.

“Bridge this is Mac. My tubes are dry and I’m bugging out to take down some more Imps.” He then switched over to a direct frequency with Kasha Sherland, “Firecracker, Mac. I’m coming to help you honey. Leave some Imps for me.”

TAG: Bravo Sith-I-5 JediFalcon Bardan_Jusik kommando104 SWBob

 

IC: Deputy the Astromech, General Perez, Commander Hilton, Actualise Station
Location: Kingdom of Jod satellite galaxy


In the café overlooking the selection of docks where the Sword of Justice, Vella Gulf, and the Johnny Boy were situated, the jet black R2 unit, immobile in the wheeled plastic ‘skate-tray’, sat next to the dozing Perez, who, with his crossed legs stretched out before him, sat with his head lolled back in the simple, silver-styled plastic chair.

Deputy swivelled his dome and main photoreceptor to the glase balcony barrier, and studied his own reflection, particularly where the tray was, in relation to the rest of him.

A hatch on his torso flapped open, and his circular buzzsaw came out, extending downwards on a hinged arm, and starting to saw at the front of the tray, scattering glowing sparks along the polished floor.

After a few moments, the tray fell aside, dropping Deputy’s own rollers enough that they could gain traction on the floor.

He whistled excitedly as he zipped about the local area for the first time in days, only quietening when he sensed the General stirring.

Deputy stopped, noise and movement, until Perez moaned, and settled down again, snoring gently.

The droid approached the officer from the front, wondering how to get his revenge.

* * * *

The whistling of his comlink brought Perez out of his nightmare – he had been recalling the last hours aboard the Science Ship Auriga, with the ship’s A.I. echoing voice telling anyone alive to listen that there were non-human lifeforms detected on several decks, and parts of the ship were un-inhabitable.

Well, no-sith, Sherlock.

Perez exhaled gratefully, glad to find himself aboard Actualise Station, rather than aboard the Auriga.

He glanced aside at Deputy, who greeted him with a happy bleep.

“Morning.” He nodded, unfolding his legs, and pulling himself up so that he could sit straighter, and answer his comlink. “Perez.” He felt some resistance, and leaned forwards to look down.

“General. This is Commander Hilton.”

“Mercs in trouble, are they?” he guessed, noting that black strips had been cut away from the inside legs of his trousers, and tied together. Clearly, standing up would have to be done carefully. He looked suspiciously at Deputy.

“How did you know?” Hilton’s voice asked.

“Just a wild stab in the dark, Commander. Which incidentally, is what you’ll be getting if your next words involve me not taking imminent command of the Vella Gulf.”

There was silence from the comlink.

Perez sighed. “Alright, so I am meeting you aboard the Sword of Justice, then.”

“Negative, Sir. We have orders from Royal Intelligence. We are to take command of the King-II-class battleship, Allegiance, and use her for a VIP rescue of all Mercs at Port Haven. We being, Captain Stakes, me, his best officers-”

“-and me?.”

“General, you are counted among the ‘best officers’ pool. Meet me aboard the shuttle Justice Five.”

Movement from the side caught the General’s attention, and he looked over to see the droid almost next to him! It shouldn’t have been able to move!

“What are you up to?”

“Up to? I’m not up to anything.”

“Not you. This droid.”

WIZzzzzzzzzzz- The vibrations through his butt and his quick glance down, confirmed that the R2 unit was sawing at his chair’s rear-right leg. Like he would not notice.

Perez launched himself like a GAM missile off the seat, eyes wide as he realised that he was unbalanced through having his legs tied together, “Oh, no you dooooooon’t!”

He slammed into the deck, comlink rolling away out of reach, but not out of earshot.

“General? General?”

* * * *
Cockpit of the Justice Five

Face bruised from contact with the floor, Perez joined Hilton and the pilot in the cockpit as they approached the large warship that was one of the newest to roll of the production line.

It was even bigger than the King-class, so had probably flattened the production line.

The Commander looked across at the new arrival. “What the hell happened to you?”

“That droid happened to me. I’ll need a change of trousers when we reach the reach the Allegiance.”

“Scare you, did he?”

“Yeah, funny haha.” Perez retorted sourly. He could see how close they were to the large vessel. “We on final approach?”

Hilton nodded. “Yep, we’ll be on board in a moment.”

Tag: Captain Stakes

OOC: Bravo, just assume we are onboard with your next Allegiance post.

---

IC: Mary Formal, landing craft cockpit.
Location: somewhere on Port Haven


“At least we’re sailing in calmer waters, dear," Salmakk said, pausing for a minute, standing up with a grunt turning to meet Mary’s gaze. “And now we can prepare for the next storm. Also, did you say next time? I must be growing on you," he said with what he probably thought was something like a human smile.

"It is a long time since anyone called me 'my dear', that's all."

The Mon Cal paid no attention to the pilot wedged under the seat as he made his way out of the cockpit, grabbing his backpack on the way. “If you’ll excuse me, I have an armory to raid."

While Salmakk went back into the vehicle bay, Mary stood at the flight controls, to try and get every last bit of information out, that she could, between adjusting the loose flightsuit sleeves as they kept incessantly flopping over her hands, so she couldn't see what she was doing.

Utterings from the comlink were pretty random, and mostly she could hardly make any sense. Mostly. "-ind out what happened to Task Force Kingfisher. Hook up with two friendlies in last known location. The Major General wants that village leveled, POWs collected for intelligence, and the-ssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

"Village?" Mary mused aloud with a frown, once it was clear she wasn't getting anything more than audible static from the broken commo board. She switched it off. "Something separate to the smuggler base on the beach?"

“Any ideas, Mary?"

She sighed, deciding on the spot to rejoin the Mon Cal in the brightly lit vehicle bay, rather than work alone in the dark cockpit. Though there had been other survivors of the Imperial blockade on Flitter, society had broken down a bit once the food and shelter had started to run out.

Despite Neot's best efforts to ruin her plan, she was finding that she preferred having him around.

Ducking into the light, she noted that he had found a shoulder-launcher, a better kept relative of the shoulder-held ion cannon she had used on the Alliance safe world. "Ideas? Well there was something on the comm' about a Task Force Kingfisher, and a village that someone wants levelled. Do you think they were referring to the place we just escaped from?"

Stepping round her Salmakk, she leaned past the open cabinet door, to look into the armoury. "Feth, we could fight a small war with these?"

Tag: Salmakk Neot

 

IC: Jason Lasso
Rendezvous point, jungle river, Port Haven

"According to the Imperial Field manual left on board, it's a 1-M command vehicle, with all the latest goodies. The most important being a ship to shore radio receiver/transmitter. The previous owner gave us all the intel on how to use it..." Al'kesh mouthed a silent "Don't ask" to Lasso at this point, along with a slight shake of his head. "...and bypass Imperial SIGINT (signals intelligence). We haven't used it yet. Even with that intel, my guess is that the Imperials will shut us down pretty quick. So we wanted to get the gang back together before we made a move."

Taab pointed to the Pho Ph'eanian now. "Ghevar here is a tech we rescued at the village. Helped us take out the reinforced platoon there, so I told him he can come with us, pending your approval of course." Ghevar bowed dramatically to the Captain, "He's pretty good at what he does, and he got the tank's radio working in short order. Even tapped into some of the Imperial ship to ship stuff. There is something going on up there. No word on who the Imps are opposing though."

"Welcome aboard Ghevar; we need a tech. I'll give it to you short and sweet. Your part of the family now. You share our rules, our polices, and how we operate. If you don't like it anymore one day, fine. We find a civilized space port and drop you off. But, if you ever betray us, I'll hunt you down to the ends of the galaxy and beyond if need be and won't rest until your dead. Are we clear?"

Now Taab gestured to his jetpack, obviously missing the warhead he had used in the battle. "I just hope that whoever it is the Crusader isn't far behind. I need to resupply." He unclipped his helmet now and placed it back on his head, his voice echoed out from underneath it. "Looks like we have everything we need though. We should act fast Skipper, once the Imperials figure out we have their tank they are probably going to want it back."

Lasso forked a thumb to the sub, "This baby is loaded. Every weapon, from projectile to blaster, is on board. Including warheads. They may be a bit old, but I think Taab you can seperate the duds from the useful ones. As for the tank," Lasso grinned, "This baby has a minature repair bay. A tight fit, but just big enough for the tank. And Ghevar, you get your first test. We need the Imperials to think their tank vanished. I want any ability the Imperials have to track this tank or remotely disable it removed from the tank. I'm a sure a tank like this has a fail safe in case its stolen, so find it, and disable it. I have a feeling we'll need this tank more then we think. And Taab, you wanted to keep it. I do too, all the way to the Johnny Boy. We'll raid a Imperial patrol or something with armor and take what we can to modify your new toy.

"But, first thing first," Lasso looked back towards the sub and twirled his finger; the sub's top bow armor parted way, showing a rather spacious repair bay, "Lets get this tank settled. Also, Taab, when do we use our tank's one ticket at communication? Like I said, we can use the base to boost the signal. So, do we try to communicate those unknowns against the Imperials now, hoping its the Mercs, or do we wait until we know for sure?"


TAG Bardan_Jusik

 

OOG: Yea Sith I know the Skywalker. I goofed and didn't know I did!


IC: Mara Jade
Canyon


"Hello there, it's okay, we are here to rescue you. "

"Thank you," Jade said warmly; she had already put the lightsaber safely away before the trooper arrived, "Good to see Stormtroopers act better then most."

As, what Jade could summarize as the oddest group of Stormtroopers---and a very outspoken Saber Guard---she had ever seen before got through their argument on who was suppose to speak first, what she could assume was the squad leader finally spoke up, "I'm Spartacus."

"No operating number," Jade said, raising an eyebrow as she tightened the foil blanket around her, "Better anyways. I like names. It gives you justice as people, not drones."

Finally she decided to respond to the Saber Guard, despite his earlier outburst, "Now Saber Guard, if you ever refer to me as a pet again, I will kill you. What's your mission profile to Port Haven and from whom? As a Hand of the Emperor, my authority to ask such questions is without rebuke. And my authority from the Emperor himself is without question. So answer, Saber Guard, now---and without more words then you care to speak to preserve your life. And Stormtroopers, as of right now, you and the Saber Guard are under my direct command. Without question---including from Major General Hatcher.

Regardless of why the Saber Guard was here, he was about to become her asset, by authority of the Emperor. A Saber Guard, alone and without support from other military units, was rare. So whatever he was doing was, by her authority from the Emperor, was less important then what the Emperor wanted personally done. And Jade was the Emperor's Hand in such matters of personal interest from her Master.


TAG Sith-I-5

 

IC: Twenty-One (DLT-5921), SG-12 ("Twelve"), Mekuun Hoverscout
Location: Port Haven ravine


"No operating number," Jade said, raising an eyebrow as she tightened the foil blanket around her, "Better anyways. I like names. It gives you justice as people, not drones."

"Actually, my friends call me Twenty-One," The Monster Squad trooper revealed, not wanting to operate under falsehood, "but if you like 'Spartacus', go with that."

Finally she decided to respond to the Saber Guard, despite his earlier outburst, "Now Saber Guard, if you ever refer to me as a pet again, I will kill you."

Twelve raised a surprised eyebrow under his helmet. He could see how whoever she had gotten the fleet off, hadn't tried to palm her off with a glorified hovercraft. It was down to the attitude.

"What's your mission profile to Port Haven and from whom?" She continued. "As a Hand of the Emperor, my authority to ask such questions is without rebuke. And my authority from the Emperor himself is without question. So answer, Saber Guard, now---and without more words then you care to speak to preserve your life. And Stormtroopers, as of right now, you and the Saber Guard are under my direct command. Without question---including from Major General Hatcher."

"You're a bit bolshie for someone who sent out a distress call." Twelve noted aloud, folding his arms.

Twenty-One looked sideways up at the Saber Guard, and pointedly slid himself sideways two paces from him, saying nothing.

The move wasn't lost on SG-12. He sighed, unfolding his arms to look less defensive. "Along with Captain Sard of the Imperial Navy, and Imperial Intelligence, I am looking into why Navy vessels are disappearing, yet Fleet Command are making no attempt to recover them and their crews. Our research has implicated a group called 'The Mercs' and a possible foreign government called 'The Kingdom of Jod'. We were trying to trace the Mercs via known shadowports, and upon learning of your blockade of, a shadowport, figured the Mercs must be involved in some way." He pressed a finger to the centre of his chestplate. "I'm down here to question prisoners, Ma'am. With your kind permission of course. Pretty please. Zherry on top, etcetera."

Tag: Mara Jade

 

IC: Beskaryc Taab
Rendezvous point, jungle river, Port Haven

Taab chuckled with a slight shake of his head. The Captain was a bold one. Intending to keep the ride he and the others had "borrowed" from the Imperial Army showed a certain amount of flair. Still he couldn't blame him, even if they couldn't use the vehicle he was sure they could sell it on the black market to someone who could.

"This baby is loaded. Every weapon, from projectile to blaster, is on board. Including warheads. They may be a bit old, but I think Taab you can separate the duds from the useful ones." Taab turned a bit more thoughtful at that. Hopefully one of the warheads would fit the launcher on his jetpack. They were all designed to be standardized, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue but one could never be sure. Taab then watched as Ghevar (who indicated that Lasso's terms were most acceptable) scampered back aboard the tank in an effort to find and disable any Imperial tracking devices.

"But, first thing first," as the sub's repair bay doors opened at the Skipper's signal. "Lets get this tank settled. Also, Taab, when do we use our tank's one ticket at communication? Like I said, we can use the base to boost the signal. So, do we try to communicate those unknowns against the Imperials now, hoping its the Mercs, or do we wait until we know for sure?"

Taab turned his attention back to the Skipper, mulling it over for a moment. "Whoever is up there is no friend of the Empire, the enemy of my enemy is my friend." He explained further. "We monitor the radios. If they show they can make a dent in the fleet large enough for us to break out through, we make a call. Whoever they are, they probably won't be picky about narudare (temporary allies), at this point either."

The tank fired up its engines once again as Al'kesh started to inch it forward towards the sub's waiting repair bay. It would indeed be a tight fit, but Taab knew Al'kesh could manage. The Devaronian had grown quite attached to the vehicle in his time as it's driver. Suddenly the top hatch flew open and the Pho Ph'eahian lifted himself up with lower two arms, his upper two arms waved excitedly in the air.

"You find something already?" Taab asked. "Erm...uh.....No, well...... No." Ghevar looked dejected for a moment before remembering what he had to say. "But the Imperial comms are going nuts right now, they just lost their Interdictor!"

Taab turned to Lasso now. "I think that's our sign. It's your call, but I think it best to contact our allies as soon as possible."

TAG: Bravo

---

IC: Atin Taab
Crusader, Battle of the Whendyll System

"All right, this is our best shot. All squadrons follow me," Atin was doing his best to ignore the playful banter of the other pilots as they came through his headset. He was a good pilot, but this was his first foray into a large scale space superiority battle, he didn't want to be distracted by idle chit chat. Instead he watched as his missiles streaked through space and impacted their target blowing it to bits, moments after the TIE Bomber had launched its own deadly cargo towards the Jod Destroyer.

Shab, he was too late. The rest of the TIE Bombers were also letting loose with their torperdos, targeting the defenseless destroyer beyond. Atin locked onto a second bomber and fired another pair of missiles at his new target when the forward shields flashed under the impact of green plasma bolts. The TIE flying close escort and opened up on him. The forward shields had already been battered when he blew through the outer screen of fighters, he didn't want to subject them to more even concentrated punishment, so he broke off his attack.

The TIE's blew past him as the Crusader peeled away, but Jeth's gunnery skills were once again evident as he blew one from the sky. The upper quad mount chattered away as well but came up empty. Beyond a small explosion marked the destruction of the second TIE Bomber that Atin had targeted. But it too had already launched its attack on the Dawn Treader. In fact all of the bombers had now
managed to fire off their torpedoes which left trails of blue efflux behind them as they tracked their own target. Behind those torpedoes the bombers continued on in formation, determined to press their attack if their torpedoes failed.

---

IC: Warren Kefler (EC-87-5) (NPC)
TIE cockpit, Battle of the Whendyll System

Along with the rest of Delta flight, LT Kefler had his throttle pushed to the limit. The YT-1300 had already fired off one pair of missiles, he was determined to take it out before it could launch again. Behind the freighter a number of fighters were forming up to support it. The freighter was deadly enough, but those fighters would decimate the lumbering TIE bombers. Looking at the vectors through Delta would only have to protect their charges for a little while longer. "Delta, attack pattern Viper-7. Target the freighter..." he glanced down and was not surprised to see it was running without any kind of ID code, "...then blow past it and engage those fighters." A series of "double clicks" on his comm system came thorough as way of acknowledgement.

Behind him now, one of the bomber's transponders winked out, a casualty of the freighter's missile salvo. The offending vessel fired again, just as it came into range of Kefler's guns. Almost as one Kefler and his wingmate assaulted the freighter, scoring several hits on her forward shield area. They blew past as the second pair of TIE's came up behind them, ready to unleash their attack on the larger craft.

Unwilling or unable to withstand another attack though, the freighter banked away, giving the bombers a reprieve. Deltas 7 and 8 also blew past the craft now, scoring some glancing blows as the freighter let loose her own barrage from the upper and lower guns. Delta 8, tail end charlie for the Deltas, was caught in a brace of fire and exploded. Damn! Kefler thought to himself as the freighter's second set of missiles hit home a moment later. Another bomber lost.

Despite that the mission was proceeding quite well. As the bombers continued on towards their target, the remains of Delta flight pushed on towards the incoming fighters. But behind those fighters, ignored by them in their push on to the bombers, was the remains of Kefler's squadron. Those six TIE fighters had now come around. Two fighters sat back on the X-wing's "tail" and began to fire on her, while the second pair ran in and attacked the ARC-170 that had come late to the battle. The remaining two (one of them damaged) had linked up and were also turning back into the battle area.

TAG: JediFalcon, SWBob

---

IC: Captain Reep I Cheep (NPC)
Kingdom's Navy Vessel Dawn Treader, Battle of the Whendyll System.

Cheep watched with satisfaction as Rapier flight bored in on the Imperial frigates. Their attack should do enough damage that the Dawn Treader alone might be able to handle the vessel's to their front. If either the Snap Dragon or the House of Vimal added their own guns to the attack it would be a certainty. Privately though he hoped they would be late in arriving after their destruction of the Imperial Interdictor. While they had done that important work, he and the Dawn Treader had taken on three Imperial warships alone. He wanted the honor of ultimately destroying them.

He was quite pleased with himself when his tactical officer shouted out. "Incoming torpedo tracks, two dozen and climbing." Furious, Cheep spun away from the forward view. "What? From where?" But the TAC officer never got a chance to reply as Cheep pushed him out of the way and stared down at the display himself. Upon seeing the situation the color left his face and he began to drum his fingers on the hilt of his dress sword.

There were three dozen incoming torpdos now, all targeted on the Dawn Treader's exposed aft section. So concerned was he with the Capital ships opposing him that he thought the fighters to be little threat. He had ignored them and assumed they would be dealt with by friendly fighters. Now he knew he had been wrong. "Increase firepower aft, I don't want any of those getting through!" he ordered, but deep down he knew it was useless. There was no way the Dawn Treader's defensive guns could drop that much incoming ordinance.

On that at least he was right. As he watched on helplessly the Merc's fighters engaged the bombers and the torpedoes grew ever closer. A few were taken out by the Dawn Treader's defenses, but many, far too many were getting through. Cheep activated the Dawn Treader's 1MC informing the entire ship's compliment. "Brace for Impact."

Then the torpedoes struck home. The first few tore away the remaining shreds of the destroyer's aft shields allowing the remainder to impact against her engineering section and her exposed engines. The ship rocked under Cheep's feet, and all the lights went out as power was lost. Another tremor through the deck knocked Cheep from his feet and he was flung against a nearby console. Emergency lights came on, bathing the entire bridge in a dull red glow. The effect was to make the blood running down Cheep's face to look black against his dimly lit skin.

Captain Cheep managed to regain his footing. "Dama..." he coughed hard several times. Ignoring the pain in his chest he tired again. "Damage report." But there was no one else able to respond yet, the rest of his bridge crew had also been thrown to the deck by the explosions and were just beginning to recover themselves. Finally his damage control officer responded. "Main power offline, aux power is only working past frame 42. We've lost propulsion and there are uncontrolled fires in the aft section working their way forward."

Cheep coughed again, spitting up blood onto his hand. The ship was still alive, barely, but was clearly out of the fight. "Concentrate your efforts on fighting the fires. If they reach the hanger deck we lose the ship." The damage control officer, a man that towered over the diminutive Captain nodded and started issuing orders to his own people. The Dawn Treader had done her duty, and many aboard her had paid the price. If the fires could not be controlled soon, they all would. But with the loss of the April Dancer it meant that Jason Lasso could make his own escape. As he looked around at his wrecked ship, Captain Cheep hoped it was worth it.

TAG: Sith-I-5. Also CPL_Macja, kommando104 (any others in the battle area I might have missed) for general reactions.

OOC: Quick recap. All TIE Fighters/bombers are now fair game. In front of the Mercs fighters there is a combination of 10 bombers and three fighters left. The Bombers are continuing on towards the Dawn Treader. The three TIE fighters are moving to attack the Mercs. Behind the first wave of Mercs are six more TIE fighters coming in behind them now. One pair is attacking Fress, another pair is attacking Visak. The third pair is in the area but not directly engaged with anyone yet. You may all dispose of them as you see fit. Good hunting.

 

IC: Fress Colias
Whendyll system

“Firecracker, Mac. I’m coming to help you honey. Leave some Imps for me.”

"I'll try baby, but I can't make any promises," Fress said with a frown as she watched several torpedoes launch all at once. She swore over the comlink as she sensed a couple of TIEs dropping in behind her tail and began to fire. She pushed her fighter to the side as two bolts brushed by her cockpit. She had to loose these two tails and quickly.. She pulled on the stick sending the fighter into a loop and watched as the fighters behind her followed closely. Two TIEs, she would have to make the one shot count. She counted down as she pushed the fighter into a second loop not giving the other two a chance to catch up to her allowing her to drop neatly behind the two fighters. She unleashed a volley of lasers nicking the wing on the left TIE causing it to spin out of control and careening into it's partner.

"Bombers are now in range, we have to deal with the rest of the bombers before they do anymore damage," Fress commanded. If the bombers had been in range, she could've dealt with them before they did damage. The bombers decided to act before she was within range. Fighting a war had a heavy price to pay. The fighters from the JOD engaged the bombers as she blasted another TIE bringing up her count to seven.

CPL_Macja, Bardan_Jusik, Sith-I-5, kommando104, SWBob, anyone else I missed

 

IC: Jensen Visak pilot of Vigilant
Location: Whendyll System

Jensen followed Firecracker for a while as they made their way towards the bombers and their escorts. He saw a few of the enemies desinigrate into fireballs, impressed at the skill of the Merc pilots. Man, I've gotta step my game up if I want to be able to hang with this crew. Alright you wanted a show? Ill give you a show!

Jensen switched his weapons over to proton torpedoes, lineing up a shot on one of the bombers. His target indicator started to slowly beep, speeding up as the lock became more and more secure. Then just as he was about to fire there was a yelp from Rex. He looked down at his screens and saw that four of the TIEs from the rear group had come up behind him and Firecracker, two behind her, and two behind himself.

He watched firecracker as she preformed a double loop, coming up behind the surprised pilots, cliping one of them sending it flying into the other taking care of both of them. Well lets hope the two behind me were watching that also.

In an imitation of Firecracker, he pulled up, starting a loop. "Rex, on my mark I want you to perform a wham-bam!" Hearing rex whistle an affirmative, he finished the loop. As he came back to his original position he slightly lifted the nose of the Vigilant as if he was going to do a second loop just as she had, but then he yelled out to rex, "Now!" As the two TIEs behind him started to pull up to follow his second loop, not wanting to end up like their squadmates, Rex killed the thrust and put all engine power into reverse thrusters. Jensen was thrown forward in his harness as a loud WHAM reverberated in the cockpit as the inertial compensators tried to adjust to the change in speed. Now for the BAM!

The two TIEs sailed right past him, realizing to late what he was planning. He let loose with his cannons, green bolts punching through one of the fighters eyeball shaped cockpit, the other severing the pylon conecting the now missing cockpit from the wing before the whole thing exploded. He then adjusted his aim towards the other pilot trying to turn away. But all he accomplished was providing a bigger target for Jensen. Firing off two more blasts he watched as one hit the top of the array, the second hitting dead center of the panel, punching through into the cockpit and erupting out the other side. The second TIE exploded into a fireball just as his wingman had.

He keyed his comm back on, "Well that was fun!" He heard Firecracker over the comm, "Bombers are now in range, we have to deal with the rest of the bombers before they do anymore damage." He turned his ship towards the bombers he was about to fire at before he was so rudely interupted by the TIE fighters. He locked his proton torpedoes onto the lead bomber. When he got a steady tone indicating a solid lock, he fired. One missle flew out from his ship, hurtling towards the lead bomber, seaming unaware of how close he was to death. The missle slammed into the bomber, riping it apart easily as the warhead exploded. He hoped that by hitting the one in front, it might distract the others from their bombing run. He didnt have much hope of that happening, so he started lining up a shot to hit the next bomber.

TAG: JediFalcon CPL_Macja Sith-I-5 Bardan_Jusik kommando104 and anyone else involved

 

IC: Commodore Norris, Pit Lieutenant Joel, Vindicator-class heavy cruiser, Cimmerian
Location: Port Haven orbit

It was a harried Norris that half marched, half jogged towards the double bridge doors, that were sliding aside at his approach, activated by the metal command pin attached to his grey tunic.

“Report.” He ordered as soon as he caught sight of the junior he had left in command, Pit Lieutenant Joel.

“Commodore, enemy ships have been turning up at the system edge, and have managed to take out the April Dancer, and I have lost contact with the Hard Eight as well. I despatched the Vigil corvette Urgency to reinforce the interdictor, but it was unable to get there in time.”

Norris’ eyebrows shot up in surprise as he absorbed this. “How in Oseon did a bunch of starfighters and freighters take the ‘Dancer?”

“Sensors indicate the presence of non-Imperial capital ships, designation unknown.”

“Has someone tried to out-flank us? Break the blockade from outside?”

Joel shook his head as Norris joined him on the command walkway before the windows. “I don’t think so, Sir. At least not yet. It seems like a separate engagement going on out there, however, I think we should divert more of the blockade force to reinforce the Vigil, and the two Nebulon-Bs of Captain Sard’s taskforce .”

Norris felt that was the logical move too, but there were considerations. “Is the Emperor’s Hand back with this Jason Lasso character?”

Joel shook his head again. “Her ship went down in the jungle north of the settlement, and she sent out a distress signal. Ground forces are trying to locate her. We have no idea yet if Lasso is still with her.”

Norris turned away, placing a palm on his forehead in disbelief. “This was supposed to be Case Yellow, light resistance. Now all this?” he turned back. “Until we make contact with the Emperor’s Hand, and get her permission to divert blockade ships, we hold position. However, we can send TIEs.”

“How many?”

“All of ‘em, frak it.” Norris quipped, then retreated. “Okay, that’s a bit rash. Our entire complement, seventy-two….keep twelve here to patrol our vicinity, and send the other sixty to clear the skies of whatever rabble is out there.”

Joel nodded and snapped his heels together, and while Norris frowned at this formality, he was immediately distracted as in one of the crew pits to the side of the walkway, one coveralled operator stood and looked up at them. “Lieutenant. Commodore. We have a signal from the Urgency.”

Norris glared back. “I don’t want to talk to them. Tell them to proceed as previously instructed, and to expect reinforcments.”

“As ordered.” The crewman sat back down, and lifted the headset that he would need to talk to the other ship.

Tag: no-one

---

IC: Bridge Officer Bob, Captain Ool-Re-Kospi, Lieutenant Colson, Delicate Delinquent interdictor cruiser, the Snow White HT-2200 freighter, Imperial Gamma-class assault shuttle, the Mister Waverley
Location: Whendyll System outskirts


Bridge Officer Bob was stationed in one of the DD's side quad-laser emplacements, and could see flames at the rear of the Dawn Treader, as they closed on her.

The bridge had already informed the gunners that they were to keep the TIE bombers off the Jod destroyer, while friendly starfighters engaged their Imperial counterparts.

Bobob caught sight of one of the twin-bodied bombers with it’s curved solar fins entering his view from the right of his circular transparisteel window, and swung his weapon to face it, walking lime green laser blasts, two by two, into the offending craft till he caught it dead centre, the bomber disappearing into a bright flash of billowing flame.

“Good shooting,” the bridge complimented anonymously.

“Thanks.”

* * * *
Snow White

The reptilian pilot listened to the feedback from his passengers.

"Arm the turrets first and foremost so we have something to shoot back with," Sal said; the Ryn jumped into the conversation immediately afterward.

"And get involved in that growing starfighter battle. We'll need to stay to the out-skirts of it and take shots of opportunity to blow enemy targets off of friendlies. Our lower maneuverability would doom us in a straight up dogfight."

"To the turrets, Cap?" Sal asked as to press the matter that they were about to enter into the very thick of things.

Overwhelmed by all the different things happening at once, Ool delayed so long that the Imperial cruiser exploded with a white flash and an expanding circle of debris, and a Jod Light-class destroyer got her backside shot off by a flight of TIE bombers.

Finally, Captain Kospi spoke. “Gentlebeings, thank you. Sal, yes, get to the turret. Beaky,” He looked over at the Ryn. “Cargo Bay Two.”

"What is that, some kind of word association?" The Ryn asked.

“Sorry, I forgot your name. Go into Cargo Bay Two. When I open the hatch, we should be inside the Dawn Treader's hangar bay. I want you to start evacuating people. It doesn’t look like its going to last l-”

A bright flash outside caught the Tiss’shar’s attention, and he looked up to see a coherent beam of white energy pulse from the front of an Imperial Vigil-class corvette, striking the side of the ‘Delinquent!

“To your stations!”

Ool-Re-Kospi pressed forward on his controls, taking his freighter on an intercept course with the distant Dawn Treader, and activated his comlink. “This is the Snow White. I'm going to start getting people off the Dawn Treader. Is there anyone able to help, and if there anywhere we can evac the crew to?”

* * * *
Mister Waverly assault shuttle

Colson didn’t like being this popular.

The spectacular detonation of the April Dancer had obscured his rear sensors enough that the pursuing Bantha-class, two Z-95s and the N-1 starfighter had gotten uncomfortably close before his instruments had cleared enough to detect them.

Ahead, the hijacked interdictor was moving away slowly, and his sensors painted two craft sticking with it, one being the Dunelizard that he had “allowed” to get two free shots in, just moments before.

He would love to get some payback, but his ship was clearly getting ganged on by so many ships.

The lieutenant keyed his internal comlink, to address the twenty spacetroopers in the back. “Harla Platoon. We may not be able to take you much closer. Immediate deployment. Immediate deployment.”

He looked up as his warning alarms sounded, and saw three glowing balls, proton torpedoes most likely, closing fast from the direction of the interdictor, then saw her rock as she took fire from the Vigil-class corvette that had been sitting out there in the middle of the battle.

He knew Immobiliser 418s had no such ordnance, and that Dunelizard was making tracks in the other direction, so he had a good idea who had fired them.

He banked hard to port, the first torp skimming past on the right, but took the other missiles directly in the face, throwing him hard into his seat restraints as their impact stopped his ship in mid-flight!

Several klicks behind, Yavscout saw the impact and fireball obscure the Imperial craft. A glowing proton torpedo blurred between him and Trask's fighters, to some point unseen behind them, and started to turn back on it's course.

The situation for the boarding craft looked well terminal, but to be on the safe side, he keyed his own comlink:
“Mako, Cochise, other Z-95-” The girl pilot that he would later know as Siera Trask had not yet identified herself to him, “-fire at will, fire at will, fire at will. Cochise,” the elf added as an afterthought, “I hope your name isn’t Will.”

A spread of five golden energy torpedoes fired from the Tunare’s own nose towards the back of the Imperial assault shuttle, while to the left of him, the Mako's quads pounded green fire into the contracting fireball around the 'Waverley.

Tag: Bravo as Sal and Beaky (if you want), Cain Varss, Siera Trask, Captain Cheep, anyone on Merc frequency

 

OOG: If I seem to be avoiding tags to the space battle, I am, because I am allowing Sith to handle the space combat. I'm focusing on the ground side. Just figured I should say something.


IC: Mara Jade
Canyon

"Along with Captain Sard of the Imperial Navy, and Imperial Intelligence, I am looking into why Navy vessels are disappearing, yet Fleet Command are making no attempt to recover them and their crews. Our research has implicated a group called 'The Mercs' and a possible foreign government called 'The Kingdom of Jod'. We were trying to trace the Mercs via known shadowports, and upon learning of your blockade of, a shadowport, figured the Mercs must be involved in some way." He pressed a finger to the centre of his chestplate. "I'm down here to question prisoners, Ma'am. With your kind permission of course. Pretty please. Zherry on top, etcetera."

Mara raised an eyebrow, standing up. She could feel the sudden tension in the stormtroopers through the Force---but even without the Force, their tension was clear. If any fighting words were about to be had---

Mara put their tension at ease, "If it wasn't for Galen Marek's decimation of the Saber Guard Corps and the Sith Acolyte Corps, I would kill you where you stand guard. But even that is not enough to save your life. Save one thing, however---these Mercs. I have read the intelligence reports; Navy Intelligence believes a massed strike of Merc, Rebel Alliance, and this Kingdom of Jod government is likely at Project Zero. My mission is to capture their new leader, Jason Lasso, and then trace his confession to Rick Taller. And end the Mercs once and for all. And," Jade tightened the foil blanket around her and walked towards the waiting hovercraft, "Trace Taller to the Jod. Our Master has plans with the Jod and now do you. You shall report any findings of the Jod to me personally---before you let Imperial Intelligence know. That is an order and shall not be repeated beyond here. Now," Mara nodded and a trooper helped her up to the metal surrounding the inflatable ring, "I do believe I have a shadowport to destroy in the name of the Emperor and capture a Jason Lasso. Troopers, we depart immediately for Port Haven."


TAG Sith-I-5
OOG: For some reason, I feel like I made Jade sound bad-*ss as she was standing on top of the hover craft and commenting on the destruction of Port Haven. Listening to Gladiator soundtrack, so the music helped to inspire that mental scene.

 

IC: Jason Lasso
Rendezvous point, jungle river, Port Haven


"You find something already?" Taab asked. "Erm...uh.....No, well...... No." Ghevar looked dejected for a moment before remembering what he had to say. "But the Imperial comms are going nuts right now, they just lost their Interdictor!"

Taab turned to Lasso now. "I think that's our sign. It's your call, but I think it best to contact our allies as soon as possible."

Lasso swirled his finger up in the air, "Lets get going then! Ghevar, get me a comm line set up. I want you to hone in on anything that is broadcasting a Merc signal and," Lasso handed him the comm backpack as he climbed onto the tank, "Patch into the pirate base. We'll boost the signal from the tank. We have one shot. I need you to piggy back the signal from the tank to the pirate base---we need to make it look like the signal came from the pirate base and not the tank if at all possible, just in case the Imps do a back trace. When your ready, call me. I'll send the call," Lasso jumped off the tank and headed towards the sub, "We depart land immediately gentlemen. Lets move out."

In short order, the sub was drifting back out towards sea. For now, they would have to stay above water with the hanger doors open to send a signal.


TAG Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Cain Varss
Whendyll System, pursuing Gamma-class Shuttle

Cain had already locked onto the shuttle ready to fire when Safety gave the order. He thumbed the trigger for his missiles and sent two sailing from his Z-95 toward the shuttle, a quarter of his complement. He thought about firing another pair, but the shuttle looked to be out of sorts already judging from the damage it had already sustained from Mac. If more missiles were needed, he could use them. If they were not, he could save the remaining six for other targets.

“Cochise,I hope your name isn’t Will.”

Cain sighed at the quip as he watched his missiles streak toward the target. “Two away. Also, that joke is older than the Republic,” he said flatly. He looked out his cockpit toward where the incoming TIEs were, then to his sensors. The TIEs had already lost a few pilots. These Mercs really are as good as I heard. Beyond that he saw the smoldering Dawn Treader. The ship was unlike any capital ship he had ever encountered. He decided not to waste any more thought on it. There would be time for that later.

Tag: Sith-I-5, JediFalcon, CPL_Macja, Bardan_Jusik, SWBob

----------

IC: Salmakk Neot
Port Haven

"Ideas? Well there was something on the comm' about a Task Force Kingfisher, and a village that someone wants levelled. Do you think they were referring to the place we just escaped from?"

“I should think not. That place was already mostly leveled when we left, at least from what I could see.”

"Feth, we could fight a small war with these?"

“I certainly hope it doesn’t come down to that. My soldiering skills are a bit out of practice,” That was an understatement. “though I’m sure it’s similar to swimming. Before I came to Port Haven the first time, it had been at least decade since I had last swam,” he said, recalling the memory. “But when I landed on the beach for the first time I ran straight for the ocean without hesitation, on instinct. I’m sure my soldiering instincts are still intact.” He was about to continue but he realized he was going on about nothing, another new habit that had seemingly come with age.

He sighed. “Anyway. I had always heard stories about a village on this side of the island full of what people around Port Haven called ‘tree people’. I always thought they were just myths, but it appears not. We could go stake out the village and see what’s up, but I'm not entirely sure what good that would do. We could also stay here to monitor comms for a while. From the sounds of it, a missing shuttle is probably pretty low on the priority list right now, and we would be able to see them coming assuming the sensors weren't damaged in the...erm, landing.”


Salmakk’s head turned toward the cockpit. “We still need to deal with the pilot. It would probably be best to kill him,” he said reluctantly. He didn’t like the conclusion, but the less the Empire knew about who they were tracking, the better and the only way to keep him from talking would be to kill him.

Tag: Sith-I-5

 

IC: Captain Timothy Stakes
Bridge, King II-class Battleship Allegiance, Northern Stretch


Music: Gladiator---The Battle


Red Space stretched out before them and Stakes stalked back and forth along the starboard bridge, on the second level. He was nervous. With all of his experience, he felt like a junior officer fresh out of academy training. He knew how a King I felt---how she moved, how she talked. This new ship, it was strange to him. Unlike the Sword of Justice, he felt no connection between man and machine. It was simply a machine right now. But soon, he would have a bloody trial by fire to be more acquainted to his new ship. The King II had every sensor and communication wonder the Jod could come up with, some of where were highly classified and fresh from field testing from the House of Royal Intelligence. Stakes had long associated Royal Intelligence with blood...and he no less doubted that this new technology came at the cost of lives.

"Captain," said a communications tech from the crew pit, "The Surveyor has a updated report. Via a data-burst."

Jod technology was a mystery---how the HRI could communicate via Red Space was beyond thought at times.

Stakes nodded, "Put it up, Ensign," he said, walking back to the Captain's Chair and looking over to his left at Commander Hilton, "Are all departments ready, Commander?"

"Yes, Captain. Lieutenant Commander Volkov is going to be assisting in forward missile control; Lieutenant Rolly is sick with the Balmorra flu. Chief of Security Cingolani has security teams deployed in all sensitive areas and has doubled the guard at all possible routes of enemy boarding action; several squads of Major General Scott's SAC Troopers are in support of Cingolani's men. General Scott has several SAC Troopers ready for immediate action if the need arises. Wing Commander Timins has half of our starfighter compliment ready for immediate action and 3 squadrons on scramble notice; both Timins and Scott are on the port bridge. Chief Medical Officer Jones has all medical bays on standby. And General Perez is assisting in starfighter deployment, recovery, and repairs in the main hanger bay."

"And our resident Shepard?" Stakes asked.

Hilton hesitated for a moment, then fumbled for his data-pad, looking it up, "Ah, leading a prayer service in the Mess Hall sir before battle. May I ask why?"

"Because Commander," Stakes said coldly as a holograpic display appeared in front of him showing Port Haven and the on-going conflict on the edges of the system---not much had changed from around Port Haven proper, which is what Stakes was hoping for, "We are going to bring a unholy fire upon those heathen monsters that they shall not forget. And we shall bring it upon them without mercy. The black flag shall be brought upon them. And I think the good Shepard should be kept where he is, as to avoid the sight of the coming bloodshed."

Hilton nodded grimly; something had almost seemed to posses the Captain as of late, as if all the war fery in all the galaxy was collected upon his very command. Hilton hoped that the Captain was okay---his unusual absence from the bridge earlier when Hilton had to order the departure of three Light-class Destroyers was uncharacteristic of the Captain.

"Captain," spoke up the helms officer from up front, "Three minutes until reversion."

Music: [at 01:42] Gladiator---The Battle

Stakes nodded and waved the hologram away in front of his chair and hit the comm button to the port bridge, "Wing Commander Timins, alert 2 for all starfighters. Hold their deployments until I give the order."

A voice came back from the Wing Commander, "Yes, Captain. Hold all starfighter deployments until ordered; at 2 minutes and count down. Port Bridge clear."

Stakes then spoke up, "Gunnery status?"

"All guns ready, Captain."

"Hold fire until ordered. Fire pattern Alpha Priority One."

"Copy, Captain. Hold fire until ordered; fire pattern Alpha Priority One."

"Shields on stand-by. Damage control crews to your stations. Sensors, prepare to adjust to real space. Communications, prepare to scan, intercept, and decode all enemy transmissions. All departments to the ready," Hilton ordered.

Stakes hit the comm for the whole ship but as the navigation officer held up two fingers, "Now here this. Now here this. Two minutes to reversion. Two minutes to reversion. Battle stations! Battle stations!"

It would be dangerous, exiting Red Space this close to a planet. But it was possible, even for a King II. It was the only way the Jod could surprise the Imperials and deal a blow and get things more on a even playing field.

"One minute," Helm reported.

Stakes started trapping his command chair as he watched the time tick down on the side of his command chair. 30 seconds...

Music: [at 02:26] Gladiator---The Battle

20 seconds...

10 seconds...

There would be no way to track a incoming vessel from Red Space. It was impossible. The Imperials would have no idea it was coming; the plan was simple, jump in, blow stuff up, jump out.

5 seconds...

4...

3...

2...

1...

The red tunnel of Red Space collapsed and snapping into view was Port Haven and the Imperial fleet blockading the planet; far to the edge of the system, not visible by the naked eye but visible on sensors, was another on-going battle.

Sensors quickly acquired a lone Escort Carrier identified as the Defender.A respectable TIE screen was around her, but that wasn't Stakes' concern. "Attack speed!" Stakes ordered.

"Shields up! Sensors identify and acquire all threats for defensive and offensive weaponry!" Hilton ordered.

"All heavy gunnery target that Escort Carrier! All turbolasers in range, acquire with heavy gunnery! FIRE!"

The lights dimmed and the bridge shook with a rumble as the weapons discharged; Stakes watched as the heavy weapons ordinance crackled along the carrier's shields.

"Enemy shields have taken a hit! At 80%!" Sensors reported.

"Enemy TIE Fighters moving to engage!" Reported another sensors office.

"Hold starfighters," Stakes calmly ordered, "Gunnery, pour it on hot! All weapons in range engage! Concussion missiles, launch your first volley!"

"Quad lasers, intercept those TIEs!" Hilton put in.


The Allegiance was closing the distance quickly on the Escort Carrier at attack speed and her TIE screen began to engage. In a thunderous display of firepower, weapons of all make and kind discharged from the Allegiance. The TIE Pilots must had been expecting a similar weapon load-out to their ImpStars, but as they moved in closer, the quad laser cannons started tearing into their formation that were, up to that point, able to avoid the heavier turbolaser cannons for the most part, although not completely.

"Three thousand meters to enemy escort carrier. Shields holding, Captain. Ninety-five percent. Return fire from Imperial escort carrier non-effective. Enemy TIEs identified as primary threat and the carrier is deploying more."

"Helm, bring us about to port. Keep us within one hundred and fifty meters of that carrier to our starboard. Gunnery, prepare mass driver cannons."

"Captain, enemy shields are down!"

"Launch second volley of concussion missiles! Make them count! Avoid the reactor core!"

As the second volley launched and started to hit at such a close range, Stakes began to see hull plating fall off of the enemy ship and atmosphere start to vent from the carrier, as well as other debris such as bodies. As the Allegiance positioned herself, Stakes ordered, "Gunnery, redirect fire to TIE Fighters. Only bow and starboard heavy guns and turbolasers focus on that carrier. All starboard concussion missiles, prepare to fire on my order. Mass driver cannons, prepare to fire on my order."

As the Allegiance started to mirror the Escort Carrier's path of travel, Stakes stood up and ordered, "FIRE!"

The mass driver cannons unloaded with Assault Concussion Missiles. Stakes watched as the escort carrier, already starting to fail, started to turn into a can inside out, shredded as fire rolled through exposed decks, debris and bodies flew out into space, and the enemy ship fell apart inch by inch. Soon, the Allegiance was past the burning hulk of the ship and redirecting her course to exit the battle zone. TIEs desperately tried to put a dent in, but as the Allegiance came about the way she had come, she disappeared into Red Space.

Without mercy, a Imperial Escort Carrier was left adrift, a burning hulk. What emergency crews could salvage from escape pods or Stormtroopers and TIE Pilots in their self contained suits would be anyone's guess.

Meanwhile, Stakes knew he had to keep the offensive going. Giving the enemy any time to regroup would be a mistake. After dropping out of Red Space communications had sent a encrypted message and used a ion-scrambler to all Jod craft in the area as to what the Allegiance's battle plan was: hit and run attacks to dwindle down the enemy's defenses and then launch an all-out attack to retake Port Haven. For the time being, the Jod and Mercs were to finish in their area of operation before connecting with the Allegiance for a grouped hit and run.

Selecting a area on the opposite side of the planet, towards one of the other Escort Carriers, was Stakes' plan. Shields were recharging from a drain down to 89% and hull plating held at 97% where enemy attack runs were successful, but repair crews were already repairing those areas. The TIEs had had their fun, but they had very little real time to organize any true counter-attack, and the attacks that were successful were often unsupported by other units in the chaos that has lasted barely two minutes.

"Regardless of where we hit," Stakes was telling Hilton, "The Imperials will be better prepared now. They will have superior TIE numbers deployed. So we'll take them one ship at a time; we'll deploy our scramble squadrons and hit the furthest out Vigil-class corvettes with superior firepower, jump in and jump out; we need to avoid the escort carriers and heavy cruisers for now until we have support ships like our Lights. The starfighters will hold a screen and jump in and out with us to deflect any superior TIE numbers against our anti-starfighter defenses. No more then a minute and a half on station per attack; we don't want to give the Imperials any chance to do mirco-jumps and surround us. Once our Lights and that unidentified Interdictor are free, we'll join up and launch strength in number counter-attacks. We need to act quickly before the Imperials call for support from outside Imperial commands. Thoughts before we jump in again?"


TAG Sith-I-5, all players

 

IC: Seira Trasks
Whendyll system

“Mako, Cochise, other Z-95-” “-fire at will, fire at will, fire at will. Cochise,”

Seira aimed her missiles at the Imperial Assault shuttle and hit the firing button as her targets lined up. "Firing away. My call sign is Rogue," she watched as the missiles she fired left a fiery trail behind them. She aimed her lasers at the quads on the Assault shuttle unleashing a barrage of lasers.

IC: Fress Colias
Whendyll system

Fress pulled her X-wing up as she slipped behind another bomber. She aimed her lasers taking the bomber out before he had a chance to realize she was there. Being Force sensitive had it's advantages. She glanced around and noted the others were fairing just as well. She smiled tightly as she flew the X-wing to the next TIE bomber. The sooner they took them out the better.

Fress noted a JOD ship by the name of Alliance taking out the escort carrier. It looked like the Sword of Justice only bigger. Was this the new upgraded version? She couldn't worry about that now. She was glad they came, it would help turn the battle to their favor.

Sith-I-5 all players

 

OOG: I tried using the Paint feature on my computer to edit the Port Haven photo with Imperial defensive positions and it didn't work.





IC: Strike Force Snake Head
Fishing Village, Port Haven


Major William Peterdon lowered his electrobinoculars as he sat on top of a Light Assault Vehicle; along the dirt jungle trail, mostly hidden well in with the jungle with camouflage nets to help hide them, were two S-1 FireHawke Heavy Repulsortanks to his left---while his tank was squarely on the road---and 2 AT-STs to his right in the jungle with similar camouflage netting to help hide them off to the other side of the road. Eight 74-Z speeder bikes brought up a rear guard along the aft of the armor formation. A Scout Platoon of 38 Imperial Army Troopers in field armor were deployed around the armored formation in several defensive formations. Ahead of the armor formation, slowly moving ahead through the thick jungle and as quietly as possible, were two platoons of Imperial Army Troopers in field armor on either extreme flanks, with 38 Special Mission Troopers taking an advanced position ahead and in between both infantry platoons. A fourth infantry platoon of Imperial Army Troopers in field armor had circled around quietly to the other side of the village and out of the over shot range of incoming artillery. All morning, heavy artillery shelling from several Heavy Assault Vehicle A6's, AT-STs, and bombing runs from TIE/sa bombers all throughout the surrounding jungle for a 10 mile radius around Port Haven and immediately surrounding the fishing village had masked the sound movements of the Imperial armor through the jungle.

Despite the Imperial Army's solidification of defensive positions around Port Haven---roughly half of the Imperial forces were dug in with earth works around Port Haven in the jungle in platoon strength with scout squad up ahead of them dug in. Several infantry squads and Special Mission Trooper squads took up various defensive positions in town proper with most of the heavy armor behind the defensive walls providing covering fire. Several Biker Scouts and other scout vehicles dug in out in the jungle with the troops, while the rest of the scout vehicles were escorting the other half of the Imperial Army through the jungle on foot patrols and search and destroy missions. The Stormtroopers, the last remaining Command Tank and the two Stormtroopers' two AT-STs, had taken up the middle of town as a command post with the Imperial Command element. Several navy elements guarded the beach landing and patrolled the cost lines. Three Imperial Drop Transports provided aerial support and had a landing pad on the beach.


TBC

 

IC: Kalka'tech the Wookiee, Private Philippa, Chief Engineer Tim Williams, Technician Flavin, Yavscout, Delicate Delinquent interdictor, and the Tunare N-1 starfighter, respectively.
Location: Whendyll System outskirts


WHOOO-oooooooo!!

The Wookiee hangar tech sprawled painfully on his hands and knees as the white lobby canted violently, turning the flat floor into a water slide, without the water, and the Kings Army soldier on sentry duty with him went over too, the both of them sliding over the floor to halfway across the spartan atrium away from the turbolifts they guarded.

Stretching, Kalka'tech slapped a furry paw on his bowcaster, pulling it back to him before he got to his knees, and hauled himself to his feet.

Next, he reached down for Private Casey, hauling him off the floor by the scruff of his red coat, barking if he was okay.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine," the soldier acknowledged, sucking on the heel of his hand.

Kalka'tech patted him on the shoulder, then told him to wait. He headed for the spiral staircase, bounding up the steps three at a time to where he had heard a clatter when they had been hit.

Partway up, he recognised on the other side, Wa Yay's familiar bony blue hand appearing, gripping the opaque white railing barrier for support, and re-doubled his efforts to reach her.

* * * *
'Delinquent bridge

The crew had learned the benefit of trying to stay in their seats, and had largely managed that.

"First chance we get, I'm having seat belts installed up here." Flavin promised as he retook his position at the helm. "We are in place above and behind the Dawn Treader. Some of our gunners are already engaging the TIE bombers."

Tim nodded. "Good. Damage report?"

"No internal areas reporting, Chief. Perhaps that infrastructure isn't in place yet."

"We'll probably have to ask that Wolf character if he pops by again." Tim frowned, trying to remember what the soldier had said.

"Sir, long-range sensors have picked up a new group of signals. Groups of TIE fighters leaving the blockade and heading this way."

"Groups?" Williams echoed.

"Half a dozen distinct groups, Chief." Philippa hummed and harred over her readouts. "Hard to pinpoint numbers, but at least two of the groups contain ten fighters."

"The Empire is nothing if not uniform. I'd bet that each of those groups hold the same number. Total of sixty TIE fighters."

A new voice came over the loudspeakers, which Williams preferred to one crewmember talking for him, and then forwarding the caller. Better everyone on the bridge hear at once.
"This is the Snow White. I'm going to start getting people off the Dawn Treader. Is there anyone able to help, and if there anywhere we can evac the crew to?"

"Copy that, Snow White." Tim transmitted. "We've got troubles of our own, but as soon as we are clear, we will send transports to assist."

"Well, don't take too long about it, 'Delinquent. My scanners suggest one of those Nebulon-B's is locking tractors onto her."

"My own scanners concur. Oh, hello, I'm receiving a data burst from the King-II-class battlecruiser, Allegiance. She is in-system and directly attacking the blockade around Port Haven. Brace for impact; that Vigil is firing again!"

The deck jumped and canted as they took another heavy hit.

"Shields holding at 92 percent."

"All our starfighters are busy; our quads are engaging the TIEs. I want ideas on how to deal with that corvette before it carves us into pieces. Although," The Merc engineer admitted reluctantly, "It has got quite a helpful recharge time between its shots."

Flavin contacted a ship he knew to be in the hangar. "Rescue Shuttle, what's your status?"

* * * *
Tunare

Yavscout saw both Z-95s add pairs of their missiles to his five, the multi-coloured spread of torpedoes speeding ahead of them to the target.

"Two away. Also, that joke is older than the Republic."

Yav couldn't help but smile at the retort.

"Firing away. My callsign is Rogue."

"Copy that, Rogue. Good to have you along."

With the fireballs shrinking and dissipating around the Imperial boarding craft, the elf could see that her forward momentum had stalled somewhat, which was find and dandy, except for the part where the Merc pursuers were belting along at her at close to sublight!

"Evasive action!" Yav jinked the Tunare to the right, careful not to hit Rogue, while ahead and to the left, the bulky Mako was incapable of such quick movements, but clearly managed to nose up a smidge before she ploughed into the back of the solid Gamma, but appeared to plough through several white, blocky objects thathad appeared unexpectedly above the transport, tossing them to the left and right, as well as pushing most before it.

Yavscout caught sight of one that spun out into his path, and his eyes widened as he realised it was a Zero-Gee spacetrooper, already aiming one of its weapon arms at him!

He pulled the control yoke to the right, banking the Tunare away. His head hit the canopy as the craft bucked under him, the cockpit filling with a cacophany of alarms, and lights switching to red warning.

Yavscout continued to turn the craft in an evasive spiral, while trying to keep his interdictor in general sight.
"'Delinquent from Safety. I'm hit."

"We saw it. How bad?"

There was a slow diffused flash outside which looked like it came from behind him. He hoped it was the Imp vessel, because right now, he was in no shape to fight it.

"My shields are holding, just. Looks like my spaceframe is compromised though; shields only thing holding me together." Yavscout did not want to return to his cruiser, but his systems had other ideas. "I'm coming in. Prepare a fighter for me to swap into."

"Look, Yav," Williams' sounded exasperated, "this isn't a used speeder lot-"

"What about that Merc femme that got dumped by Mac? The one you said was back on the market. What about her ship?"

"Okay, her ship is parked in the TIE hangar. Come on in, we'll ready her fighter."

"See you soon. Cochise, what's the status of that Gamma?"

Tag: Cochise, Rogue, Dawn Treader

 

IC: Jensen Visak pilot ARC-170 Vigilant
Location: Whendyll System

Jensen fired as his torpedo lock solidified, the audible chuff as the warhead left the launcher marking the death of the TIE Bomber that was about to explode. He watched as the torpedo lept forward, racing towards the target, the pilot trying to manuever out of the way of his impending doom. The torpedo punched through the port side of the starfighter then exploded, igniting the full complament of warheads that it had. The ship disintigrated as the power of eight proton torpedoes, sixteen missles, and who knows how many bombs, exploded out from the ship. The blast wave caught one of his wingmen, his ship too sluggish to escape the massive explosion. The solar panel, already bent by design, folded in on itself, piercing the cockpit. The ship stopped all manuevers and headed on a different course from the rest of its squad, the pilot obviously having been killed by the panel, the ship destined to fly on forever until its engines die, or some other pilot decided to put it out of its misery.

Jensen let it fly on, deciding to deal with the more dangerous craft. Arriving within laser distance, he lined up on the next bomber, ready to take it out when green bolts of laser fire stitched across his view, slamming into his shields as the TIE fighter corrected his aim. "I've got one on me! Anyone around?" Jensen pulled back on the yoke and as his ship pulled up he saw the TIE speed over the top of the Vigilant. The TIE was streaming a cloud of smoke as it flew past. Damaged? Maybe I wont need any help.

He turned his ship quickly trying to come up behind the damaged TIE that was already starting to make a loop back to make another run on Jensen. The smoke against the black starfield behind him made him an easy target. Jensen fired with his lasers as the TIE was coming around to face him. Gotcha now! You wanna play chicken? I've got shields and you dont. Lets see how how long we each last. The TIE started to fire, the area between them becoming a sea of green lasers. A couple bolts struck his shields and he put a little more power into his forward shield to keep them strong, his ship still pouring green fire from his cannons. The TIE fighter pilot realized his mistake to late as he tried to pull out of the stream of bolts coming his way. One clipped the solar panel, wrenching his ship almost ninety degrees to the left. The next two bolts hit the other panel, destroying the ship in an explosion of debris. "Never mind on that help. I handled it." Awesome, now where did those bombers get to?

TAG: Anyone in the space battle

 

IC: SG-12 (“Twelve”), Twenty-One (DLT-5921), Benny (BNY-1114), flooding ravine
Location: Port Haven


Mara returned, "If it wasn't for Galen Marek's decimation of the Saber Guard Corps and the Sith Acolyte Corps, I would kill you where you stand guard.”

Twelve regarded this slip of a girl. There she went again, threatening his life!

Suddenly he had it, raising his left hand to snap his gloved fingers in recognition: this was Dun Moch! The art of verbally upsetting and destabilising an opponent. It was di reguier in Dark Side training.

Grinning behind the T-shaped visor now that he knew, or thought he knew, what was going on, the Saber Guard crossed his arms again and relaxed his stance.

“- not enough to save your life. Save one thing, however---these Mercs. I have read the intelligence reports; Navy Intelligence believes a massed strike of Merc, Rebel Alliance, and this Kingdom of Jod government is likely at Project Zero.”

He had no idea what Project Zero was, but clamped his mental shields down before allowing that thought to solidify in his mind.

“My mission is to capture their new leader, Jason Lasso, and then trace his confession to Rick Taller. And end the Mercs once and for all. And," Jade tightened the foil blanket around her and walked towards the waiting hovercraft.

Twelve used the Force to prevent her feet breaking the surface of the water as she crossed the eight feet from shore to the Hoverscout, but Jade was so into sounding bad...bottom, that he doubted that she would have noticed, or if she did, would acknowledge it

"Trace Taller to the Jod. Our Master has plans with the Jod and now, so do you. You shall report any findings of the Jod to me personally---before you let Imperial Intelligence know. That is an order and shall not be repeated beyond here.”

SG-12 had no problem with that. He was working with Imperial Intelligence, not for them. While they and Sard had their own operation, he, the Saber Guard, had initiated his investigation after the Star Destroyer he had been hitching a ride with, had been almost destroyed trying to capture this Taller character at the Greater Javin.

“Whatever you say, Treacle.”

“Now," Mara nodded and Twenty-One helped her up to the metal surrounding the inflatable ring, "I do believe I have a shadowport to destroy in the name of the Emperor and capture a Jason Lasso. Troopers, we depart immediately for Port Haven."

While Twenty-One helped Mara inside the vehicle, Twelve extended a hand to towards the shore, and Force Levitated Benny over to join them.

“Th-thank you,” the seatrooper stammered.

“Not a problem.” SG indicated that Benny could go inside before him, but the seatrooper leaned in to his side, and nodded to the Emperor’s Hand.

“She can walk on water.”

SG-12 revelled in the mis-direction, and shook his head minutely. “Don’t make a thing of it.”

Twenty-One moved ahead of the Hand to his seat at the Intelligence station, and looked back at her. “Ma’am, I have to call in; inform my lieutenant that we have found you. Is that alright?”

Beyond him, SG-12 could see the younger Intelligence analyst leaning back from the cockpit to look back at them. “Hey guys.” He spotted the one in the foil blanket. “And girl. A lot of action happening over the planet. The escort carrier Defender just got pummelled almost into oblivion in a hit-and-fade attack from another battleship.”

“Call the Cimmerian.” SG-12 ordered. “Let them we found their girl. And get us back to the beach.”

"On it."

“I'll call my lieutenant.” Twenty-One sat down, and pulled a headset on. “Seventy-Nine from Twenty-One.”

“What the hell happened to you? You got cut off.”

SG-12 frowned. He shouldn't be able to hear both sides of the exchange if one was wearing headphones.

“We found the Hand.”

“Just the hand?”

“Give me that.” Twelve stepped over and snatched up the headset. “Yeah, there was an accident with a combined harvester. We're looking for the rest, but-”

The stormtrooper snatched it back. “Sorry about that, Boss. We found all of her, she's fine; maybe a bit of hypothermia.”

Benny meanwhile, directed Jade to one of the passenger benches at the back. "Ma'am, sit here please. I need to check you out."

Tag: Mara Jade

 

IC: Captain Hargreaves, Chief Engineer Tim Williams, Gorax Group, Nebulon-B escort frigate Cash, Delicate Delinquent
Location: Whendyll System outskirts


Captain Hargeaves was a Navy lifer. Deliberately so, not because some Imperial statute demanded he remain in service.

White-haired and white moustachioed, he looked on anxiously from the bridge of his escort frigate, as his ship took a pair of proton torpedoes from those Kingdom of Jod fighters in the face, rocking the ship hard, before his gunners starting to take care of the enemy starfighters, blasting many of them out of the sky as they skimmed over his hull.

Then the TIE bombers arrived. Such a beautiful sight, their streams of torps heading in unison to rip into the Jod destroyer's rear, thoroughly crippling her from the looks of things.

He had already locked onto her right side with his Phylon Q7 tractor beams, and was steering towards space behind her, to tow her the short distance to his hyperspace jump point.

Hargreaves' ComScan people informed him that the TIEs leader was a Delta Leader. He sent the comm himself.

"Delta Leader from the escort frigate Cash. Our mission is to capture this enemy ship, not destroy her. You have done a fantastic job, however, please disengage."

As he waited for an answer from Warren Kefler, the view from the bridge swept left along what was left of the Dawn Treader's flanks to the triangular spatula-shaped interdictor cruiser, above and behind the target vessel, blazing green laser fire at some of the TIE bombers, small puffs of flame visible about her.

"ComScan, what is that interdictor?" He called.

"The Delicate Delinquent, sir. She is in enemy hands, Captain."

"Main Batteries. Open fire on her! Give those TIEs some cover." The captain was grateful to the friendly starfighters, but was reluctant to deploy his own as he was on his way out.

On the surface of his hull, two of the heavy Taim & Bak XI7 turbolasers swung away from the Dawn Treader to acquire the Delicate Delinquent.

One of her smaller Borstel RH8 laser cannon fired upon the distant Mac as he came in from the DD's direction.

"Tango from the Cash. How you doing out there?" Hargreaves called to his sister ship.

"Things pretty quiet out here."

"Okay, I'm on my way out with this Jod ship. We owe a debt to these TIEs though; think you can give them some fighter support until those reinforcements from the blockade arrives?"

"Copy that. I'll delay my departure by ten to twenty, and pick up the Hard Eight."

* * * *
Delicate Delinquent bridge

Williams continued to watch the battle unfold, and could see the icon tagged as the Snow White closing fast on the Dawn Treader.

WHOOM!

The bridge rocked hard to the right with another hit from the Vigil sitting out there by itself.

"That ship is starting to annoy me!" The Merc yelled his frustration.

"Well, can we launch our fighters now?" Flavin pleaded, referring to the Squadron Leader's fighters that would have been sent to escort Yav, but were still sitting in their TIE hangar.

"No, I am holding in reserve."

"For what?"

"Mind your manners, Technician. Find out if any of our gunners can see that Vigil. Any who answer yes, switch half of them from TIE targeting to shooting at it. Maybe their concentrated fire can dissuade it from blasting us."

WHOOM-WHOOM WHOOM-WHOOM

The ship lurched hard as it took several near-simultaneous impacts! Klaxons and alarms went off, forcing Williams to bend low in his chair and hold on for dear life.

"Frag-sith, what the hell is that?"

"Taking heavy fire from that Nebulon-B!" Philippa called from behind him. "We're losing a shield"

WHOOM-WHOOM WHOOM-WHOOM

"Evasive action! Helm-"

"I have a name!"

"Frag you! Micro-jump us sixty klicks forward from this engagement."

"On it, stand by."

"We've lost a shield!"

Outside, an oval curtain of red energy appeared between the Cash's plasma-spewing guns and the Delinquent, and the Jod destroyer, House of Vimal neatly inserted itself in there, green turbolaser fire spattering against her lower shields.

Destructive energy from her double-barrel laser cannon punched back at the manouvering Imperial frigate.

Starlines folded around the DD, though only visible to those onboard, as she jumped away from the engagement, leaving Firecracker's flight and the Dawn Treader to fend for themselves.

A black N-1 slowed as the DD disappeared from in front of it, while dozen of klicks away, a hatch on the front of the Tango escort frigate rolled up, the slab of neutronium-coated durasteel slid up to expose the hangar bay, ten Alpha Nimbus V-Wing starfighters, jet black with white circled Imperial propeller logos on their s-foils, sped out into the night, instantly engaging the Mercs and the Jod vessels.

A V-Wing and a Jod ARC-170 deliberately flew at each other head-to-head in a high-tech "joust", peppering each other's forward shields, banking slightly to pass each other when neither exploded.

The pilot flying the V-Wing of Gorax Four snarled as he witnessed an ARC-170 put down an already-smoking TIE fighter.

Gorax Four's communication suite found the enemy frequency, allowing him to hear "Never mind on that help. I handled it."

Gorax Four settled in behind Jensen's Incom-Subpro six-foiled craft, and began skimming laser fire over the other's cockpit.

"Oh, you like blasting defenseless TIEs, do you?" He transmitted to the rebel. It was against regs, but as he was on the Merc's frequency, his squadmates and the Tango couldn't hear him. "Try me."

Unless they too decided to search out the enemy comms. Who else had the time?

Tag: Jensen, Dawn Treader / Kefler, Mac, Firecracker / Rogue

OOC: Okay, in my world, I ackowledge that the Nebulon-B frigate is physically too small to carry TIEs, regardless of what the books say, so I always deploy V-Wings from any Neb-B that I roleplay.

Except Gorax Four, please feel free to post damage for the other nine Gorax V-Wings. Feel free to attack Four, though.

 

IC: Fress Colias
Whendyll System

Fress watched as the DD jumped into hyperspace as she spotted the N1. Which she was on under the impression needed repairs badly. She shook her head as she yanked on the stick and took out another bomber as a new voice joined the fray.

"Oh, you like blasting defenseless TIEs, do you?" "Try me."

"Defenseless TIEs my arse," Fress snipped over the com unit. "And how pray tell did you break into this frequency?" She questioned with irritation in her voice without identifying herself. She quickly switched frequency's to one that the JOD used and planned to contact Yav on his personal com frequency instead. "Firecracker to Snap Dragon, launch your fighters. Targets are the V-Wings. Leave the one who found the frequency alone. He's mine. Safety needs a new fighter, any chance you have a spare?"

IC: Ron Darkins
Whendyll System, Snap Dragon

"Copy Firecracker, squadron is launching now. hold back half the squadron, to be on the safe side," Darkins responded as he signalled for Thompkins to give the signal. They were now targeting the Gamma assaut shuttle. The sooner they wrapped up this battle the better. He watched as the ARC 170s launched joining the fray now taking on the V-wings that have recently launched. He thought about Fress's question and shook his head with a heavy sigh. I hope I don't regret this decision. But it was for a good cause... "I can offer him my personal ARC 170 fighter."

"That's fine. I'll let hiim know you're expecting him. He's in the N1 black fighter."

"Copy Firecracker," Ron answered. "Make sure he doesn't scratch it."

IC: Fress Colias

Fress quickly switched to Yavs personal comlink. "Firecracker to Safety. You are to board the Snap Dragon to trade for an ARC 170, don't scratch the fighter. It's the Captains personal fighter. Hope you're a fast learner. Also we need to switch frequency's since that V-wing discovered our channel. Any ideas?"

IC: Seira Trasks
Whendyll system

Seira damaged a V-wing as they were suddenly overwhelmed with more fighters. This battle was fierce making her wonder what the Mercs did to attract the attention of the Imperials. She dove under another TIE bomber and came up behind his tail. Fress was right, these TIEs were far from defenceless, but with how quickly they blew up made her wonder about their shielding. She blasted the TIE bomber as the Snap Dragon attacked the Gamma shuttle. That took care of the assault shuttle as far as she was concerned.

Sith-I-5 anyone listening to the channel.

 

IC: Mara Jade
Canyon


“Hey guys.” He spotted the one in the foil blanket. “And girl. A lot of action happening over the planet. The escort carrier Defender just got pummelled almost into oblivion in a hit-and-fade attack from another battleship.”

"Another battleship. A Rebel or Jod ship," Jade said more to herself then anyone else and reached out with the Force. The 'Battleship' was out of her Force range now to identify and sense, but she could sense nothing more then the startled response of the battleship's attack. And, except for standard defense responses, most Imperial fear surrounded around one Battleship, not 2. Maybe the trooper had misspoken about 2 Battleships? Still, it was clear, whoever was attacking Imperial forces was attacking with common sense. Why use your force and attract the masses and use more resources when you could hit and run with smaller resources and reserve your resources?

Jade was tempted to call in for help. Even a single ImpStar, while under the proper command, could destroy her blockade. Problem was, was finding the proper commander for such a task. It seemed that whoever commanded this battleship had the proper commander. The question was, was there more enemy support coming? Furthermore, if Navy Intelligence suspected there was a pending attack at Project Zero, was this a sign of their pending attack by only being able to send one ship? But if the Mercs were the "Chosen Ones of the Prophecy" for this Kingdom of Jod per intelligence reports, why leave them to their fate?

Something didn't seem right. If she reached out to her Master for help---the Emperor---then she would admit failure. And failure was not an option. She was a Hand, not a mindless fool.

Benny meanwhile, directed Jade to one of the passenger benches at the back. "Ma'am, sit here please. I need to check you out."

The Sea Trooper's words knocked her out of her thoughts and she nodded with a smile, "A course, Trooper," she sat down and waited for his next instructions.

As the Sea Trooper began talking, she wondered what to do. Her mission was Jason Lasso. As long as she captured him, everything and anyone was acceptable losses. Including the Saber Guard and these Stormtroopers. But Jade didn't operate that way. She operated to have the mission successful and keep Imperial lives alive. Acceptable losses were accepted, but unnessecary waste of life always rubbed Jade the wrong way.

So what to do? Let this Battleship pick her forces apart one at a time or...?

Jade interrupted as the Sea Trooper was talking something about having to check her lungs for breathing, "Twenty-One," she said, calling the stormtrooper squad leader by his unit number, "I need Blockade Command to keep track of all attacks from that Battleship. Locations, times, everything. I want a play-by-play recording of everything downloaded to this hovercraft."


TAG Sith-I-5

 

IC: Gorax Four pilot and Squad, Yavscout “Safety”, Samantha Irisa, Imperial V-Wings, N-1 starfighter, Firespray-31 patrol craft, The Detective Wyms
Location: Whendyll System outskirts


The pilot of Gorax Four took a deliberate breath through his life-support system, and released it slowly through his nose to calm himself down. A dogfight was no place for hot emotions.

His right thumb depressed the trigger – “You are an ugly trigger, and nobody likes you” – sending laser blasts towards the rear of Jensen’s starfighter.

A new voice, female, came over the new frequency: “Defenseless TIEs my arse. And how pray tell did you break into this frequency?”

Ooh, ‘arse’. he grinned at her cheek. In fact, he wouldn’t mind some of that attitude among his squadmates. If only his commanders would allow it. “Oh, the Imperial Navy has all sorts of bells and whistles.” He told her. “Wanna swap sides?”

Four looked around, out the sides of his cockpit, and noticed he had no wingmen. Not good. He switched from the rebel freq back to his squad one.

“Gorax Four to Gorax Nine. Pull in behind me, please. I could do with a wingman.”

“Copy Four, on the way.”

“I’m hit.” a third disembodied Imperial voice reported. “Ah, this is so embarrassing.”

“What’s up, Three?” Four enquired after his friend. “Apart from getting hit, of course?”

“I got winged by that Z-95.”

Four glanced down at his battle-scope. It was reading at least two fighters of that type. At least there were not any Uglies; these Rebs had some class.

* * * *
Tunare N-1 starfighter

Yav stared at the space where the Delicate Delinquent had been, just a few hundred metres from his nose.

Yeah, he had wished for Williams to take the vulnerable cruiser the heck out of there as he saw her getting pounded by turbolasers, but recalling that she had been his only chance of survival, now that the Tunare was in danger of falling apart around him, sobered him up fast.

The DD reappeared on his scopes quite a distance away. On paper, he could reach her, but in the middle of combat, like this. He doubted his chances.

Nearby, Lieutenant Colson in the Gamma-class assault shuttle was similarly dismayed; his last ditch intention to ram the interdictor at sublight velocity with what was left of the craft, foiled by its blurred departure.

Cabin wreathed in grey smoke, face blistering from the fires around him, Colson spotted the N-1 ahead and to his right.

* * * *

BLAMM!

Everything went white outside Yav's canopy, and he pushed his starfighter into a clockwise evasive spiral, his failing shields flashing as energy coruscated through them, verdant lime blaster bolts flashing round him as he tightly evaded whoever was shooting at him.

“This is Safety. I don’t think I can take another hit.”

“Uncle Yav, this is Samantha. Turn to point oh seven, then peel off to the right on my mark.”

“Copy.” Yavscout steered his craft to the left, breaking the spiral, green laser fire on his right now and seeming to move further away as he steered left on the recommended course.

He could see over the thick red lips that Deputy had painted over the Tunare's nose, the elephant-head shape of his neice' Firespray craft in the distance.

He was on a collision course. And she fired at him!

Three glowing proton torpedoes oncoming.

“Umm-”

“BREAK!” Irisa's melodic voice bellowed from his cockpit speakers, the elf using both hands on the control yoke to wrench his craft out the path of the torps, which slammed into the Mister Waverley's front as plasma bolts from the Snap Dragon pounded her dorsal hull.

The first explosion ripped her rear asunder, the Fabritech UL.2 power plant's demise consuming the Imperial vessel in an expanding hot white sphere of energy, the N-1, Mako, and Firespray speeding ahead of the fireball.

"Firecracker to Safety. You are to board the Snap Dragon to trade for an ARC 170, don't scratch the fighter. It's the Captain's personal fighter. Hope you're a fast learner."

"Thanks, Firecracker. Good work." He acknowledged gratefully as he steered the increasingly sluggish Tunare towards the distant Snap Dragon, the destroyer's welcoming shape visible on the far side of a roiling cat's cradle of TIE fighters, TIE bombers, ARC-170s, V-Wings, and several motley Merc craft. "Okay, I'll be needing his brown pants as well."

"Also we need to switch frequency's since that V-wing discovered our channel. Any ideas?"

Frankly, Yavscout had other things on his mind, and said so. "Can't you mind trick him to forget it?"

The Firespray showed him its circular ion thrusters as it sped past him to take the lead. "I'll clear a path, Uncle Yav." Samantha relayed. "Rogue, Cochise, pull in. We are escorting Safety to the Snap Dragon."

Tag: Jensen, Firecracker, Rogue, Cochise, anyone in space battle