Star Wars OPEN Star Wars: Black Sheep (Always Accepting New Players)

IC: Maxime “Max” Pallas, Akiva “Wolf” Lurell
Scanning, scanning, scanning…

Max frowned at the readings coming back through her sensors. Metal, a lot of metal, radiation…they’d been getting other readings, too, but given the composition of the asteroids and the way the disk was composed, it could be natural. Or not.

She used her voice to text to send a message back to Belgium. “Hey, Belgium,” she said, “you getting anything off that debris field ahead?”

His response came back on her viewscreen. //I GOT NOTHING. CAN WE GO NOW? THERE’S NOTHING OUT HERE.

“This stuff doesn’t look like asteroids,” she said.

//IT’S NOT. IT’S PINGING AS REFINED. BUT IT’S NOT INTACT. IT’S NOT THIS BITH MONKEY, SO NO POINT HANGING AROUND. THIS WHOLE MISSION IS A FAT WASTE OF TIME. SO LET’S GET BACK TO THE EVIL EYE WHILE WE’RE STILL IN ONE PIECE.

Max frowned, shaking her head unconsciously, and turned to look back towards Wolf, wishing that they didn't have to maintain radio silence.

Akiva for her part had finally wrapped up another selection of old music that she hadn't taken the time to appreciate in a long long time. Reaching out she hit a switch as she continued the silent endeavor.

Honestly this was mind numbing enough, the most exciting thing she had seen this whole time was when Max just now seemed to alter her flight minutely. A touch of a tail wage.

Making sure her nose was pointed directly at the others tail she wondered if the droid knew old flag signaling? Rotating her craft around the gimbals of her craft to an upward position she blinked the forward nose illuminator twice and then began opening and closing her s-foils in rhythmic and partial patterns. Granted at this range the X-wing was like a tiny spec but the droid might see and translate, not to mention it gave her something to do as she sent a simple message. //ANYTHING? DIVERT OR MAINTAIN?//

//HEY, THE WOLF IS TRYING TO SAY SOMETHING. FLASHING HER TAIL AT US.

Max pondered the message rolling across the screen, feeling that it seemed vaguely obscene. "What is she saying?" she asked, deciding to give them both the benefit of the doubt.

//WANTS TO KNOW IF WE SHOULD KEEP GOING.

Max nodded. "Do you know the old blink codes?" she asked.

//YEAH, BASIC STUFF.

"Okay, tell her there's a debris field, I think we should check it out."

//YOU'RE KIDDING, RIGHT? YOU TOLD ME YOU WEREN'T SUICIDAL! I ONLY AGREED TO TAKE THIS MISSION BECAUSE YOU SEEMED TO HAVE A CLUE.

"And because Hollymander bribed you? What did he promise you?"

There was a pause. //WHAT MESSAGE DID YOU WANT ME TO SEND AGAIN?

There were a few moments where Akiva wasn't sure if she should try again or just keep silent running and return her crafts rotation to the slimmest profile toward the inner system. Then finally her bare scope started to note a subtle visible light change of Max's X-wing. Either solar activity had finally started altering its shine or she was picking up a directed blink code.

Fantastic, now she just had to wrack her brain and manually transcribe the bloody thing into a physical code and then pump it through her crafts blink code database. Wait, that was the music players slot. "Hours of boredom. We used to live for that chance." she muttered to herself as she pulled out her music card and reinserted the blink code and cypher database card. Few moments later she finally was looking at the ridiculously simple message and what her wing planned on doing.

"Kriff. Alright. Makes sense if big enough." she muttered as she began flapping her s-foils to relay her message back. //CHECK FOR PULLING TAUNTAUN. ON SIX.

Pulling a...? What is she...? Oh. Max snorted with amusement as she headed cautiously towards the debris field.

//WHAT THE HELL IS SHE TALKING ABOUT? demanded Belgium.

"Pulling a Tauntaun," said Max. "Something Solo did on Hoth. It basically means hiding something in something else.

They got closer and Max set the scanners to encompass the field, shortening the range to broaden the width of the field. It was chunks of metal, clearly a ship. Not much recognizable.

//HULL PLATING, reported Belgium. //CHEMICAL TRACES SHOW REFINED COOLANT, A FEW OTHER THINGS. NOT MUCH IN THE WAY OF FUEL OR LUBRICANTS.

Max hesitated. "Any sign of scoring?"

//TOO FAR AWAY TO TELL. HUH. I GOT AN ORGANIC.

"What?!"

Max flew closer, scanning with more than just her eyes. Now she could see it. A body, twisted and frozen, floating in the cold of space. Dead, clearly. Civilian clothing, as near as she could tell. She felt a short pang of sorrow; it was a terrible way to die. "Can you ask Lurell if she thinks we should retrieve?"

//ARE YOU CRAZY? WE'RE ON A MISSION! YOU WANNA JEOPARDIZE IT FOR A DEAD MEATBAG?

The droid had a point, but still...if they could figure out who it was, what they were doing here, how he or she had died...a spy for the Rebellion, shot by the Imps to protect their secret? An innocent asteroid miner, who came out of hyperspace at the wrong time?

"Just ask her."

Staying back she saw the field of debris slowly resolve into something recognizable as more than just asteroids. Taking it in she noted that her first idea of this being a good spot for the Imps if they were acting like Luke when he was wounded with that Tauntaun had been a bust. It was far too small a field of debris for that. Still, she was glad they had checked it out, if only because it would have nagged at her if they hadn't.

Sitting there in silence she startled when she realized she was starting to miss the blinking on her console. Quickly scribbling the code into her translator she soon had a sad question to answer. She tried to think of a way, dumping emergency supplies and scooping the body? Only problem was unless the body had frozen solid in the vacuum of space standing at attention it wouldn't fit. Maybe if they shot off the arms and legs? But that just smacked as wrong and inviting all the wrong ghosts to follow them.

"Poodoo." she muttered as she began flapping her reply. //NOT AT THIS TIME. MARKING LOCATION FOR FUTURE RETRIEVAL.

Watching and waiting she hoped they would no more sad tales to mark on the rest of their journey.

TAG: @Mistress_Renata , @Bardan_Jusik

 

~OOC~ Special thanks to @The Real Kyp Durron for your patience and input for this post.


~IC~ Captain Cassell “Skipper” Wystari + Major MacKenzie ‘ Fox’ Hollymander
Location: Valkyria - Swordfish System

The alert from Redberry 5 came unexpectedly and succinctly. As the report was read out, Cassell dimmed the exterior lights and glanced to the reflection on the viewport back at Holly. "What do you know of these gunships?"

MacKenzie was reflecting. He was grateful for the man’s earlier advice, Cassell was wise and he respected that, a lot. Returning to his displays. “Skipper, the report stated 16 Gunboats, XG-1….Alpha Class…” He gave his head a shake. “Star Wings. One pilot, used at long range scouts, heavy shielding, fully armed with bombs and proton torpedos as well as lasers, they have tractors too. Not to be messed with.”

"Note taken…" Cassell flashed a tight smile as the shields flared briefly. Micrometeorites. Nothing to be concerned about as long as the shields held. It probably meant something larger was lurking about just out of visibility. "Where's our heading?"

"Well, if I am reading this right, the coordinates of the sighting originated almost where Black 3-13 entered the system. If they follow standard protocol, we can trace their path so far going by the trajectory given… they’re scouts mostly and recon…… they might have a nearby base. If we follow them, they’ll see us.” MacKenzie mused out loud and he narrowed his eyes to study them. “But we need to find out where they are going.” He stated.

"Since they have been tracked to go inward towards the... ah... singularity. Since the Imps have use for a large number of scouts... suggest their command ship is closer to the inner region of the accretion disc… It would mean they are blinder than us and require the gunships to be their eyes and ears." Cassell made the necessary adjustments to their course and speed to intercept the gunships. The trick was to find them before they spot us... and not get pulverized by whatever is hiding within the nebulous matter they be flying in…

What should have been ten minutes was taking longer. There was still no sign of anything mechanical nor manufactured in the cosmic seas. They kept moving, kept searching.

Twenty minute had passed and frustration was starting to settle in. "Five more minutes," Cassell announced. "Otherwise we head to one of the waypoints."

“Like looking for a needle in haystack.” He said thoughtfully, recalling the massive piles of hay in the fields on Bakura, near the pond, were herd animals fed.

The timer ticked passed and Cassell sighed. "Aiight... well, where ever they were, we lost the trail. I'll bring us about-"

Matey squealed for their attention.

Cassell almost jumped out of the seat. "Whoa, slow down there. What? Off the port bow?"

Checking his read outs MacKenzie reported “I have nothing showing, is he picking up…….maybe..an Ion trail?” He began to readjust his parameters to include a scan for said patterns.

Cassell checked the instruments and nodded. The droid had spotted a wake trail and traces of ionised emissions from engines in the gases. "Looks like the hunt is still on. Let's see where this shall take us…" Cassell grinned, they finally picked up momentum.

"Got it, it's faint…." MacKenzie touched a few keys and forward it to Skipper. "There, you should be able to follow that."

The Valkyria manoeuvred about and eased under the fading wake trails, set to follow the path in the misty 'seas'.

"Matey, keep your head on a swivel-" Cassell started

The droid made a remark about it's head can rotate a complete rotation without snapping, unlike a human's.

"Figure of speech." Cassell was not amused. "I rather us to see their engine glow than the other way around. We're sailing into more dangerous seas. There's sixteen gunships, several squadrons of fighters, an ISD on top of that… If they spot us first…" he gave a low whistle and shook his head. "Ah, farewell and adieu, to ye fair Shili ladies." He started singing. "Farewell and adieu to ye fair ladies of Shili... For we're under orders, to sail…"

MacKenzie smirked as he wondered what Cassell was singing to himself, whatever it was, it wasn’t to his taste of music, that was certain.

"… And perhaps we shall never more see you again."

TAG: Major MacKenzie ‘Fox’ Hollymander

 

OOC: More random "die" rolls here to determine a bit of what is happening with each group. Leaving things a bit more open ended on most of them to give you all some flexibility in your responses. Any questions or concerns please feel free to PM me or ask in the fanclub.

GM Update Part I: Operation REDBERRY
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IC: Major Beskaryc Taab/Major Grace "Boomer" Valor (NPC)
Leading element Black 3-13, arriving in the Swordfish system

Taab and Boomer watched in surprise and amazement as Vixen's X-Wing flashed by them, her delta-V considerably more than what was typical even for a space superiority fighter such as the T-65.

"Told you," Taab said to his backseater, a hint of satisfaction evident in his voice. He knew Vixen would pull something out of her shebs to rectify the situation, he just didn't know it would be this. Her X-Wing must have been modified somehow with an extra booster of some sort. Probably a one off, so Taab hoped it would be enough to catch the fleeing TIE.

"30 seconds." Boomer reported how long it would be before the TIE would escape their jamming range. She sounded worried, but Taab could only smile at the report. Looking out his canopy he could see the TIE didn't have 30 seconds. A few moments later it was speared red laser fire and exploded in a bright flash.

"Target negated." Taab reported back to Boomer in an unemotional tone. The TIE pilot must have been as surprised as the rebels had been because the Imperial fighter hadn't even tried to dodge Vixen's intercept. It took another moment for Taab to realize that he'd never picked up her targeting scanners. That meant she hadn't locked on to the TIE, an act that would have betrayed her presence, and instead had eyeballed her shot. Impressive under normal circumstances, and ten times as difficult at the speeds she had been operating at. "shabla spoonbenders," he said under his breath as Vixen's X-Wing looped back around, shedding speed to take up a position just off his wing. He gave her a salute, acknowledging her kill, as they continued on with their mission...



Time passed, uneventfully, for the pair as they continued their patrol route. It had been at least an hour since the excitement of the TIE fighter they had encountered, and as each minute ticked by Taab grew more and more uneasy. The TIE fighter they had destroyed would eventually be missed. They had no idea how often it was supposed to check in, or when it had been scheduled to return.

Eventually it would be listed as overdue though, which meant they might have alerted the Bith Marquis that something was amiss. He shrugged mentally. Not like they could have done anything differently, if Vixen had let the TIE go the Imperials would definitely know they were here. Still every moment that went by was another that the TIE might be missed by it's patrol base. They had to wrap this up quickly.

They were now nearly halfway through their own route and still nothing. Indeed, at this moment they were never more alone. It was the point at which they were the furthest from any sort of potential help from any of the other scouting parties, though really what help could they expect at any point anyway? Not like...

"Ironhand," the voice of Boomer cut through his thought process. "Up ahead." Taab looked down to his scanner and than out the canopy and saw nothing of note. Just more asteroids, they'ed passed by many, mostly larger than these, during their patrol. "Just rocks." He replied back to her, trying to contain a yawn. "Yeah, but that group of asteroids used to be one big asteroid..." she said. "Something blasted it apart."

Taab arched an eyebrow behind his faceplate. It wasn't the Bith Marquis, nor was it likely to lead them to it, but the small debris field wasn't off their course either. "OK, let's check it out." He waggled his wings to get Vixen's attention as he pulled the Iron Cross a degree to starboard, on an intercept for the asteroid grouping.

They were indeed all parts from the same big rock, the parts that had been on the outside for eons were dull, discolored by the "weathering" that took place in space (exposure to sunlight, radiation and cold) while the parts that had once been on the inside of the asteroid and were now exposed were richer in color, a bright red. "Blasting charges." Taab reported back to Boomer as he looked through his range finder at the blast patterns on the inner surfaces of the rocks.

"You sure?" She asked, not trusting the certainty in his voice. "Yeah, I'm sure." Charges like that had once been used against him and a band of hired enforcers as IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) by striking miners out at Ord Mantell back before the Clone Wars. He wouldn't readily forget their unique blast patterns. "It's nothing, probably the work of prospectors." He pulled the Iron Cross back onto their patrol route, fighting off yet another yawn as he scanned the sky...

TAG: @Adalia-Durron

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IC: Flight Officer Harley "Wild Card" Quin (GM Restricted use NPC)
Leading element Black 8-14

With her active and passive sensors down Quin pondered again the possibility of breaking radio silence to inform her wingman that something was wrong. Sure they hadn't seen anything of interest for the last hour since it had happened, but maybe that's because her sensors were down! besides she was bored now and just wanted someone other than herself to talk to. Reaching for the transmit button on her console she was all set to activate it when she heard a slight buzzing ion her headset. "That, wasn't me." she said, her voice almost a whisper. She was used to the voices in her head, but this was something different. This was real. Like really real.

Cocking her head to one side she leaned in closer to her forward display (as if that would help, the noise was being pumped directly though the headset in her flight helmet). Again, she heard a faint buzzing followed by distinct clicks and clacks that should not have been there. It was faint, so faint that she almost missed it. Indeed, if she had still been blaring all sorts of signal noise out there with her active sensor array she probably would have missed it, but now with her active sensors down, and Bolo using passive scanners only, this radio noise was discernible. The signals were still too weak to make any sense of them. They would start and then stop after just a few seconds. She was sure they were military then, so probably encrypted. Even if she could boost the gain she doubted she could decipher them. But maybe, just maybe they could determine a point of origin. That's if Bolo was hearing the same thing. He should, his fighter was being as silent as hers was, but with the Gungan you just never knew. That's what she loved about him!

TAG: @BobaMatt

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IC: Commander Flagg (NPC)
Leading element Black 1-9, Swordfish system

Flagg's fighter shuddered for a moment as the sensor screens in the cockpit were suddenly filled with static. The mission had just gone from boring and uneventful to...not quite so boring. They'ed been out here for hours now, about halfway through their patrol route and up until now nothing at all had happened of any note. Now his sensors were down, and though he couldn't immediately determine the cause, the effect was an awful lot like sensor jamming. though more powerful than he had ever encountered. "Robo?" He asked his droid sitting back in the astro droid slot of his X-Wing. There was only silence from the droid. "Robo?" He asked again, this time getting a half warble from the droid that echoed through the cockpit. The droid hadn't said anything for the translation matrix to translate and it sounded like it was underwater. Kriff!

"Robo?!" this time Flagg shouted out the question, and the droid finally responded. "Present response indicated, ROBO Reboot successful." Reboot? Why did the droid need to reboot? It must have something to do with the downed sensors. He voiced his concerns to the droid who responded after a few moments. "Diagnostic complete, localized ionization in this re-re-re-region is blinding the sensors and necessitated a reboot of this unit." The droid was still having some problems, but seemed to be muddling through them. "Is this an attack?" He asked the droid, worried that somehow the Empire had spotted them and had hit them with some sort of new ion weaponry. "No, localized ion effect is a natural phe-phe-phe-phenomenon. Sensors will come back online once we have passed through this area."

Flagg's worry abated somewhat at that. Though he didn't know just how long the scanners would be disabled, at least they would come back eventually. It must be a result of the accretion disc then. Still it didn't mean that the Imperials weren't using the local weather to try to hide in. He picked up his visual scans as he asked Robo another question.

"Are Lou and Vehn affected?" The droid took a moment as it whirred it's head over in their direction, and action that took a beat or two longer than it should have.

"Probability 99.87 percent."

Flagg frowned. "You could have just said yes."

TAG: @Vehn

OOC: Hey a better die roll for us this time Vehn. Just to be clear, this is a localized "weather" effect scrambling our character's sensors. They are not permanently down/damaged like Quin's are.

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Black 5-16

After the purgils had jumped away, local space had seemed empty to the fighters that made up Black 5-16. The pair continued their patrol without encountering much beyond gasses and dust, nothing that would lead them to the Imperial Star Destroyer they had been told was lurking somewhere within the system. That was until, an hour after the purgils had left them behind, a small blip was spotted on the sensor screen of Kayn's A-Wing. Too small and fast to be the Bith Marquis or any sort of of other escort vessel, it was on an intercept course for the pair of rebel fighters, following the A-Wing's sensor beams back to their point of origin,

Each using their own methods of increased visual magnification, the rebels were able to see the incoming blip before it could see them and as it got closer the small blob of a shape resolved itself into the form of a standard TIE fighter. Another scout, though of course the pair of rebels had no knowledge of the other scout already dispatched by Vixen. It still hadn't visually spotted the pair of rebel fighters yet, though it would in a few moments...

TAG: @Sarge @Master Vo'Un'Var

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Black 2-15

Leaving the debris field behind the pair of fighters making up flight Black 2-15 encountered nothing over the next hour of patrolling...

TAG: @Mitth_Fisto @Mistress_Renata

OOC: Your group drew the short straw this time. So time alone with your own thoughts here for you two. Should be the last one of these for anyone though.

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Black 4-12

After leaving the large asteroid behind Black 4-12 encountered several other, more or less of the same size. Joy and Vet went through the same procedure for each one, ensuring that a Star Destroyer or some other Imperial vessel wasn't lurking behind an asteroid in a sensor blind spot. Each time they came away empty. There was nothing there to find, until they came to the fourth such asteroid they had encountered in the last hour. This one was larger, nearly twice as big as any of the other they had seen. Coming around to the far side, they could spot movement down in one of the asteroid's many craters. Slow and lethargic, it didn't seem to be anything man made...


TAG: @TheAdmiral @Anedon

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Black 6-10

As Black 6-10 sailed through space the radio signals they had encountered slowly faded away. Cadera and Saeli had never heard them, their own active sensors blinding them to the weak incoming signals, while Zara appeared to have simply missed the faint signals before they grew to faint to detect any longer. An hour passed, an hour filled with nothing but boredom. There had been nothing else to see or hear, not even the random asteroids the others seem to be encountering. Finally though there was something, it wasn't on their flight path, indeed it was right on the edge of the accretion disc itself and could be easily missed if not for the active sensors of Cadera's Y-Wing. It was an escape pod, cold and emitting no signals it's power utilization curve was as flat as the rocks that surrounded it...

TAG: @TheSilentInfluence @Rebecca_Daniels

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Black 7-11

As the fighter's that made up Black 7-11 fanned out in an effort to increase their search range, they too ran into something unexpected. A single TIE fighter, out in the blackness of space and headed back towards the accretion disc. The rebel fighters, being in closer to the disc, found their own sensor signatures somewhat masked by the background radiation and had thus far remained undetected by the Imperial scout, though as it grew closer in to them so too did their chances grow of being detected by the lone fighter...

TAG: @galactic-vagabond422 @The Vanguard

 

​

GM Update Part II: Operation REDBERRY​

OOC: Splitting this up so everyone gets the appropriate tags. Again any questions, you all know how to reach me.

IC: Lance Corporal Manx "Terminal" Bane (NPC)
Aboard the Valkyria

As the mission got underway the group of marines began to break up. They had no duties now, and there was no telling when they would be called to perform. Right now of course their eyes could be of some use, though how much really was in question. What would they be expected to see that hadn't already been picked up on by the sensors? Manx didn't know, nor did he pretend to know. At least it would give him something to do. Determined to find the best view he could, the Duros set off in the direction of the gun emplacements. One upper and one lower, it seemed he had been beaten to the punch by one of the other "Aliens" as the lower turret was already taken. Of course to Manx the humans were just as alien as the Mon Cal who was now ensconced in the lower turret, but that didn't matter much now. What did matter was that it now limited his choices of where to sit to one, which was really no choice at all. Climbing the ladder, Manx settled down into the upper turret and began to scan the inky black sky above him...

Nothing, he saw lots and lots of nothing. It came as no surprise to him, but it was disappointing nonetheless. Eventually singing wafted back through the corridors from the cockpit. An old spacer tune known well to his people. Manx found himself mouthing the words along with the voice, though he didn't add his own voice to the tune. He'd been told by the human aliens that his singing wasn't what was called "in tune", whatever that meant. Looking back out into the sky he watched as wispy gasses and bright flashes passed by along with more than a few substantial sized rocks, along with many more unsubstantial ones. They'ed entered the accretion disc then, or were at the very least skimming along just inside it from the amount of black sky he could still see. Why or when wasn't for the Duros to know, he just knew to keep his eyes peeled, and peeled they were for the next hour, even with nothing to see...



Rubbing his eyes Manx blinked before looking back out into space. The last hour had passed slowly of course, and the strain was beginning to take it's toll on him. It was probably time for him to switch out with another marine, rest his eyes and let them take over. "Five more minutes," he whispered to himself. Just five more minutes and then he would go rest. He looked back out into the disc, word had leaked back that they were following a group of gunboats, Imperial craft that seemed to skirting just above the disc as they made their way towards destinations unknown. The Valkyria herself was staying below them, flying just within the disc to stay off the gunboat's sensors. It was dangerous, if they were spotted the gunboats would probably shoot first and ask questions later, but it seemed a risk worth taking.

Movement outside the gun turret window caught the Duros' eye and Manx blinked away the cobwebs in his mind. He had almost made several false reports before after catching a glimpse of one of the gunboats through the cloud, but had always caught himself before he made a fool of himself. This was surely no different. Soon the shape would either disappear entirely or resolve itself into a fleeting glance of a gunboat. Manx looked harder at the object, it deems rather farther off than one of those though, and larger...much larger.

He started at it for a moment, realizing that it didn't seem to move much relative to his position, not because it was moving with the Valkyria, but because of the distance. The dagger like shape now was readily evident even through the foggy gasses that surrounded the Valkyria. It was an Imperial Star Destroyer all right, they had found the Both Marquis!

The ship was enormous, far larger than anything he had ever tried to board before. There must be thousands of stormtroopers aboard, maybe tens of thousands, and all we have is a truncated squad of marines. This went beyond madness, it was suicide, even to try to hold the bridge for a short time would be impossible. Through the wispy gasses above them it looked for all the for all the world like some sort of space borne version of a an ancient oceanic predator. He reached for the internal intercom button in the gun turret to give his contact report. As he did the song sung he had heard echoing through the corridors came unbidden to the forefront of his mind and all he could whisper was...

"We're going to need a bigger boat..."



Up in the cockpit the pilots of the Valkyria would have no doubt noticed the vessel by now too. Their first indication would have been when the group of gunships they had been following from within the confines of the cloud split up into groups of four. They had been flying in two regular columns of eight, clearly not expecting any trouble, but once within a few klicks of the Star Destroyer they spread out into four groups of four, each headed towards the vessel on a recovery pattern. Clearly now their intention was to land on the vessel.

The Bith Marquis itself was hanging several kilometers above the accretion disc, a pair of TIE Fighters buzzing around it in formation. Behind her was the Lancer class frigate, the Prince Eugene, which hung at the same altitude above the disc as the Star Destroyer, but several kilometers behind. It was enough to avoid the larger ship's ion wake, but close enough to cover her vulnerable rear quarter. She was also far enough back that she could fire at any attackers from above or below the Star Destroyer, as well as to either side port or starboard. There was a considerable blindspot to the Star Destroyer's front that was left unprotected by the Lancer, what with the Star Destroyer itself being in the way, but that was also where the Star destroyer's own weaponry was most concentrated.

In terms of position, the Imperial group was at the five o'clock, above, but well inward from the edge of the accretion disc. It was a position that was well off of the original patrol routes the Black Sheep were flying. Now of course her position had been fixed, the rest of the Black Sheep would need to be informed so they could begin the next phase of their mission.

TAG: @Corellian_Outrider @The Real Kyp Durron @Vehn @galactic-vagabond422 @The Vanguard @Sarge @TheAdmiral for their marine characters and @Mistress_Renata for Digger

OOC: To better visualize perhaps for some (maybe all) of you. If the following clock face itself is the accretion disc, then the Imperial group is located roughly at the tip of the hour hand. Inward from the edge, but above the face itself. Any questions or clarifications just let me know either via PM or in the fanclub.

Spoiler

 

IC Zara Yaren
Swordfish System

Boredom in missions was something she was used to. No one to talk to, not even a droid, just enough to do that dozing off wasn't an option, but not enough to do to fully occupy the mind. It was a state she'd gotten used to long before she started flying starfighters, and usually she'd bring something along, some music from her holoplayer or a holonovel to listen to. But all that stuff was back in her quarters, forgotten before launch. All she had was her own thoughts to occupy herself, and that was something she very much wanted to avoid right now.

She had enough fuel, enough knowledge to just leave. Disappear with her fighter and hunt down the bastard on her own terms. But one person against the Empire? Against whatever game he continued to play so many years later? She could see the Y-wing she'd been paired with drifting within visual range, scanning. She didn't know the pair, both new additions to the Sheep, but to leave them out here without backup would be... unconscionable. Especially given what they knew they'd be up against in the coming battle. She couldn't be selfish now.

Something was picking at her, though, as she watched the sensor readouts. Something, like a slight ringing? It seemed like it was coming from her comm system, and she boosted the gain just to have the signal disappear. Strange. As she lowered it again, the signal reappeared. Whatever it was, it was so faint she couldn't get a hold on it. Communications and scanning systems were hardly her forte, and for once she cursed that Kayn wasn't here: he'd probably be able to sort the signal out with all that metal in his head.

Just as soon as she had noticed the signal it was gone, drowned out by the background radiation or Cadera's active sensors or they had simply moved out of range. Hopefully it hadn't been some sign of the Bith Marquis, though that would be just their luck.

There was nothing now, not for ages. Not even an asteroid to give them something to fly around. The microdebris in this system had to be wreaking havoc with everyone's engines, and the radiation probably wasn't too healthy either. The invisible more dangerous than the visible, so far.

Except: she could see it via the feed from Cadera's ship, an aimless escape pod near the edge of the accretion disk. Not live, but still something to investigate, finally. It could have been from the Imperials in the system, and might give a clue to their position, if they were lucky-- which she never was, but maybe something would go in their favour.

Without a signal to inform Cadera and Saeli of what she'd spotted, Zara couldn't be sure they'd seen it, but she had to assume they'd follow if she moved off course. Gunning her engines, Zara moved off their search pattern towards the mysterious escape pod with the hope they'd follow to gather more data.

TAG: @TheSilentInfluence

 

~Ic~ Captain Cassell “Skipper” Wystari & Major MacKenzie ‘ Fox’ Hollymander
Location: Valkyria

"We're gonna need a bigger boat…"

The Valkyria drifted through the swirling sea of matter, skimming just below the 'surface'. The hunt for the Bith Marquis had proved more fruitful thanks to the tip on trailing the gunships. It was a blessing that they had made it this far and not been spotted yet.

Matey was describing what the scopes were having trouble pin pointing. The Gunships, the Lancer, the Destroyer, the positions, formations and orientations. Cassell translated back to Holly and to the others on board via the internal PA as best he could, along with his own annotations.

"In short, they seem to have their bases covered… for the moment. Just need a to get word to the others without giving ourselves away."

MacKenzie looked over to Cassell. "How? Comm Silence." he frowned, "But the probe droid transmitted to us, maybe Matey? Or we have Max's droid back there?" he was thinking on his feet, or his backside in reality, but they had to find a way to let the squadron know what they'd found. There was no way they could face this alone.

Cassell stared out of the viewport. "You're right about the probe… what's to say it has tracked us at one point or other? Just that it doesn't know what we are observing… from this end? Maybe I should take us down to the other side on the off chance it is below and on the opposite side of this…" He gestured outside."But then again, there's another lot of issues around that. The deeper we go, the bigger things get. I wonder if there is a way to blanket our signal… amongst the noise of everything else. Yet… only recognised by our side."

The co Pilot smiled. "We've got an entire crew of Marines back there, do you think maybe they could brainstorm for us?" He glanced behind him. "Why don't you ask them?"

"Hmm." Cassell smirked and inclined his head to the internal comms. "For those listening in, always open to ideas."

Tag: @Sarge @The Vanguard @galactic-vagabond422 @Vehn @TheAdmiral @Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Kayn "Mean Streak" Balzroth
Going Head-to-Head With an Eyeball

The TIE was locked on a fixed bearing, a perfect intercept course. The odds against that being a coincidence were literally astronomical. Probably homing in on my sensor transmissions; if it had ID'ed us it would be transmitting a report and running for home already, so he must be closing in to find out what we are. How close will he need to get before he has a good tally? If he breaks away, that will mean he's ready to squeal and I'd better be ready to jam his transmission.

Kayn checked his jammer; it was preset for Imp comm frequencies with a random white noise mode that might be mistaken for natural interference from the static of the accretion disk. Any convenient asteroids to hide behind? No, nothing out here but us mynocks. Frack it, he's close enough now.

He punched the button that activated his jammer, pushed the throttles up to full power as he turned toward the TIE, then brought active targeting online. After a moment of fumbling with the manual controls, he had missile lock. Be a shame to waste a missile now, I might need them all later. I'm close enough to jam his transmission, so I might as well close in to knife fight range and gun him down.

The TIE opened fire, its longer-ranged laser cannon giving it the advantage of shooting first. Kayn skidded Rebel Rouser slightly sideways, away from the green bolts, still closing in to blaster range. With a gentle caress of the weapons control, he lined up the manual sighting system and touched the firing stud. At that instant lightning flickered in the clouds of the accretion disk. The TIE fighter flinched, sliding out of Kayn's reticle. He cursed and readjusted his aim. Just as the gunsight settled on the image of the TIE, a kriffstorm of long-range ion cannon and turbolaser bolts flashed from behind Kayn and obliterated the TIE fighter.

As random bits of hull metal faded from incandescence, Kayn throttled back his engines to low cruise and pulled the A-wing into a circle to bleed off the excess speed he had built up. A scan of the area didn't reveal any sign of a wingman for the TIE. He reduced power to the jammer unevenly, trying to make it sound like natural static fading after a lightning storm. For a moment he was abeam of the big B-wing with its S-foils extended to attack mode. Kayn saluted his thanks, and thought maybe there was a slight tilt of a buyce in return. I still don't know if this son of a barve can fly, but he shoots like a Mando. There is no kill like overkill.

Sensor records revealed the bearing that the late TIE had approached from. It had been closing in from upsun, closer to the center of the system. Backtracking its course would lead Kayn away from the rim of the disk. Would he find the Bith Marquis in that direction? Or had the Imp patrol altered course before he detected it, coming from a totally different angle? Following that track might be a wild gundark chase. But he had two ships; he could send Nighthawk to continue their assigned search pattern and go after the trail himself. But that would leave both of them alone, and they had just witnessed the vulnerability of a lone fighter. General Dodonna had drilled into the heads of his students that two fighters are five times as effective as one, and ten times as safe. Dodonna had also taught them that the only time to disobey orders was the moment when you were sure it was the right thing to do. When in doubt, stick to the plan. I've got all kinds of doubts about the wisdom of haring off on my own, so I guess it's time to stick to the plan. And for once I can't complain that it's a stupid plan. Not without making myself look a fool, anyway.

Recon Element 5-16 returned to its assigned search pattern.


TAG: @Master Vo'Un'Var

 

OOC: This is a joint post between me and @Anedon ! Thank you!

IC: Jocelyn “Joy” Sunwalker, Ethan “Veteran” Malek
Black 4-12, Swordfish system

The flight became marginally more interesting with having to check the asteroids. The chances were not big to find anything but still have to be thorough. A trait that her former subordinates in the Empire hated in her. At least Ethan didn’t seem to mind. At least she hoped so. Jocelyn frowned as something caught her attention. It was something on the fourth asteroid. Something big… and seemingly organic. Joy snorted in amusement as earlier she had been thinking about that old horror holofilm… Maybe it was one of those exo-whatever-its-name-was?

Oh by the flame an Exogorth. Ethan bit his lip swallowing the curse he had already in his mind. He had seen more than one of them in his life and each time he had only barely escaped with his life. In his youth they had encountered one during a fierce battle with pirates in an asteroid field where the battle had woken the beast which then turned on both sides. Later he had participated in hunts of them with the empire who saw them as a threat to their mineral mining operations. Lastly as a mercenary he had his closest encounter with one of the beasts when he and a team of mercenaries had accompanied a team of renegade scientists inside one of the colossal monsters to find genetic material, a story that no one he had ever told it to believed.

They had to be careful here so he brought his X-Wing closer to Joy´s ship and gave her a gesture suggesting to stay away.

She nodded, Joy remembered her instructor back on Coruscant telling her and the class to stay away from these things. Funny thing was that she could not remember the name… It had such a weird one and she could not twirl her tongue to pronounce it. Maybe a strafing run could kill it? A crazy idea formed in her mind… if only the ISD was close by they could have lured the slug to attack it. That could be interesting. ’Jocelyn, you are turning into one of them…’ she thought exasperated.

Ethan did his best to keep a certain distance to the large creature in front of him, his hands were shaking and he tried his best to calm himself down. This is something different than a space battle, there you can always survive a mistake, if you have shield energy left at least, here it's one mistake and you are dead. And yet there was also curiosity in his mind, what had awoken the slug right now? In this moment? Was there more going on?

Jocelyn was searching in her mind for information about the creature. Biology was not her forte. From what she remembered they ate minerals and stuff from the asteroids. Besides the two crafts were far too small for it. But they had to stay on the safe side. Hopefully there aren’t any Colossus wasps nearby that can. She did not give up on the idea to use it as a battering ram for the ISD, but needed to figure out how to do it.

Ethan moved his fighter closer to Joy´s, until they could see each other. Then he gave her a few quick gestures. 'suggest us leaving this place. Could be dangerous' They had already put themselves at quite a risk by gazing at the creature for so long, it was probably better now to leave and not test their luck even longer.

Jocelyn gave a thumbs up. Her idea was a pointless exercise of wishful thinking. There was no way it could be done… well unless the Star Destroyer moved close to the asteroids. Something of course any half-competent captain would try to avoid, unless really necessary. Maybe, make them chase the squadron? A lot of things could go wrong with that. Besides why would an ISD go after some puny fighters when it can simply swarm them with TIEs. Also added was the support. Boredom just made her have some crazy ideas… So she simply maneuvered her Y-wing away from the giant slug.

Ethan let out a sigh of relief as Joy gestured him to get distance between themselves and the slug. Seems I've survived a run in with these things another time. It was the calmest so far, not involving him being attacked and nearly eaten. Staying close to the Y-Wing of his comrade Ethan made course for the next waypoint, worried what other dangers might still be out here.

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik

 

R2-MA16, a.k.a. “Digger”
Valkyria

Digger had a fairly quiet flight on the Valkyria. Skipper’s droid, “Matey”, knew his job and Digger stayed out of the way, doing whatever minor services had been requested of him. He wasn’t happy at being reassigned—Belgium had been competent enough on Naboo, but really, how much did it know about flying an X-wing through combat maneuvers?—but he followed his pilot's orders.

He sat quietly now, monitoring the space noise, helping the team trying to filter through it for a signal from the Bith Marquis. When the gunships were found, with Wystari tracking them, it was easy, really. But now Skipper was trying to figure out how to get a message back to the Sheep without giving themselves away. The man was wondering if there was a way to blanket a signal, which couldn’t be easier. Max and her father had done this a lot, back on Sharan, transmitting info among the Bandits and to the outside Rebellion by embedding a message in something innocuous, like a catalog of fashions or machine parts.

In this case, it would make sense to embed the message in some sort of standard Imperial document, like a requisition form or a monthly report, something dull and unimportant that most people would pay no attention to. The trick would be figuring out how to flag it so that the Sheep would realize it was not what it seemed. Digger was plugged into a comms socket, so he sent a message off to Matey, explaining his analysis. Between the two of them, he was sure they could come up with something useful

TAG: @Corellian_Outrider, @The Real Kyp Durron, any Marines

 

IC: Akiva “Wolf” Lurell
Scanning, scanning, scanning…

Maneuvering that little bit had been the highlight of their scouting mission right now. A maneuver to see a dead body, a debri field far too small to hide what they were looking for, rocks, and tons of radiation. Honestly it was only that last part that kept her uneasy in the pilots seat, that and sitting for this long. It was grueling.

She had seen some drunk saps sleep in their chairs, she couldn't imagine how painful that would be to their backs and hips. Honestly she was thinking about getting the extended cockpit for her ship just to be able to have a little standing room. Maybe put a grav sink at the rear so she could switch gravity ninety degree and stretch out and rest properly on these ridiculously long trips.

Tapping the screen she popped out the decoder and popped back in her music player. It was time to see what this recommended group sounded like that her brother seemed to be into these days.



TAG: No One

 

Maxime “Max” Pallas
And we’re scanning, and we’re scanning…

Wolf was going to make a note of the location of the body. Max had flashed a quick acknowledgement. It was hard to leave the person behind, and yet they were on a mission. They couldn’t jeopardize it for this. She hoped the Intrepid would go back, though.

She looked through the clutter showing up on her scanners, trying to find any trace of actual intelligence, anything to suggest that there was more going on. Digger would have been especially good at this; he was used to sifting through clutter and massive datadumps to extract information that was relevant and useful. But he was helping out on the Valkyria, and she was sure he’d make a contribution there. This Hollymander person seemed to think she was an amateur, a dabbler. She wondered whether it would be good to let him continue to think that. If there was one thing she had learned, it was never a bad thing to be underestimated.

The body… Max sat upright in the cockpit. The body was intact, as near as she could tell. But the ship was in pieces. How was that possible? What had happened? An asteroid miner intercepted by pirates…or something else more relevant? Now she really wanted to retrieve that body. As innocent as it might seem, it could have been staged, to throw people off the scent of something else. People sometimes thought she was just paranoid. But if you wanted to stay alive, it paid to be suspicious. The Emperor, a Dark Jedi, had hidden for years, and created the entire Clone Wars as a false flag operation to bring himself to power. Something like this was right up his ally.

They couldn’t do any investigating, though, until after the mission. She sighed impatiently, and glared out into the exotically colored clouds of dust and radiation. It’s a freaking STAR DESTROYER, it can’t be THIS hard to spot!

TAG: Anyone

 

OOC: Whoo summer's over!


IC: Bolo Lappie
The cockpit of this kriffing arrowhead missile thing...

His cockpit's tint let up, returning to normal. He saw Harley fight to regain control. Every muscle in Bolo's body tensed to roll into action, but...nothing. She seemed...fine? She wasn't - her ship had taken some visible damage - but it didn't seem to affect her flying. The Gungan fought the urge to comm her. He turned instead to his boring new droid companion.

"Hey...whatever your number is. Can we scan Harley's ship and see how she is?"

The droid's response appeared on his hud: //COMPLYING.

Bolo rolled his eyes. What he wouldn't give to have Tarpals back...

The droid's analysis was quick: //SLIGHT RADIATION DAMAGE. LITTLE OUTGOING SENSOR ACTIVITY. POSSIBLE SENSOR OR COMPUTING DAMAGE.

"Well...she shouldn't even be out here, then. It's not safe." Bolo accelerated to come up on her side, try to maybe signal her. From where he sat she seemed okay. Not rattled, but not willing to take her eyes off the vista in front of them for long enough to pay him any mind, either. Maybe that was for the best. He fell back, bored.

In the distance: purrgils. Gorgeous animals, whale-like. He knew they were intelligent, but he was glad they were far away. Best not to attract attention - how would they know how important it was that this mission remain quiet and uneventful? Still, far away, watching them bother some of the Black Sheep, it made him homesick for the oceans of Naboo, schools of fish and pods of cetacean beasts making their ways lazily through the waters. An A-Wing wasn't so much smaller than a bongo, after all, and if he squinted he could almost pretend...but in the oceans, the rocks sank. Here they flew perilously close to you, threatening to max out your shields and turn you into a fireball.

Speaking of...these asteroids were...too close together. It seemed that there was something bigger that had been blasted to pieces. Recently.

But by what?

After a few moments, the organ that served as a Gungan heart fell into Bolo's stomach as he heard what he hoped wasn't about to be his answer. A signal. Clicking, repetitive. Was it the purrgils? He hoped it was the purrgils and yet somehow knew it was not the purrgils. They wouldn't repeat, like this. All the same: "Hey, uh, droid. Are you hearing that? Should we be worried? Tell me it's the hyperspace whales, please."

He waited a tense moment. He jumped when the droid began to reply. But all it said was //COMPLYING.

"Well hurry up!" He envied human fingernails, and humans' ability to bite them when feeling exactly the way he felt now. He pulled up alongside Harley, waved out of his cockpit, indicated his headset by pointing. He tried to pull his eyestalks into a quizzical expression. If he could, he'd beam her the telepathic message: "Are you hearing this?" But instead he'd have to settle for miming.

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Yov "Blackbone" Jaqa, Ianna "Kid" Mcear (A combo post between myself and @The Vanguard)
Black 7-11
Swordfish accretion disk

73%..70%...68% Yov's eyes were darting between his fuel gauges and his scanners, and then visually taking snapshot looks outside his canopy for any anomalies. His breaths were short, with the breathing exercises cast to the wind. Son of a farkle-hutt..he cursed his situation but it kept him from panicking. He had accepted fate before when it beckoned him into the afterlife. Yet for whatever reason here he was, still alive and still flying.

Jawa hoped the Kid wouldn't be startled by his flying pattern; so far everything was still quiet..then his sensor ping blared on screen. A single TIE fighter, out in the blackness of space and headed back towards the accretion disc. The rebel fighters, being in closer to the disc, found their own sensor signatures somewhat masked by the background radiation and had thus far remained undetected by the Imperial scout, though as it grew closer in to them so too did their chances grow of being detected by the lone fighter...

Yov steadied his craft and cocked it at an angle to try and make visual contact with Ianna.

Ianna took note of Backbone fanning out, he'd crossed into her sensor range as he moved about. Her hand hovered over the comm, but stopped herself. Radio silence, the words rang through her head like a ghostly echo. He thought for a moment bouncing up and down in her chair trying to think of something, anything to get his attention to communicate without turning on the com. Quickly she had other problems, just on the edge of her last ping was a TIE. Quickly she stopped her pings, hoping that it didn't see her. Her hands raced to shut down everything standard hide protocols she was taught in basic. She shut down her engines, her shields her weapons and com, she even held her breath. She was drifting in space holding her hands over her mouth, watching the TIE scream across her field of view. Looking nervously to her side she saw Backbone coming a little closer. She waved her arms frantically pointing towards the enemy fighter. She didn't know if he could see her or if he'd seen the TIE. To help she pointed towards the black starfighter hoping to draw his attention toward it.

Yov could tell Ianna saw what he saw, what with her little arms waving all over the place.

Is she shutting down? Yov noticed Kid's engines losing their luminous glow as she began to float, weightless and slow. Ianna made the rudimentary move to masque herself by shutting down all systems, prodding him to follow suit. He liked this plan since he was already low on fuel. "Thank the Force he can't see us", he whispered to himself as he flipped several switches and powered down. The silence of his engines behind him going dark was deafening.

Yov motioned to Ianna that he was waiting with her. It wouldn't be a good idea to try and follow the TIE once it passed since they would be restricted to visual scans alone.

She watched Backbone power down as well, letting out a breath. Giving a thumbs up she nodded to him they were making the right choice she felt. Just letting this one slip by, once they were in the clear they could move to the exit point and inform the Intrepid. That was what they were supposed to do right. She looked to Backbone, pointing towards the edge of the system, hoping he could understand what she meant, move to the edge of the system and inform the others.

Yov's ship began to rotate slowly because he shut down his systems a half-second too soon out of panic to conserve as much fuel as possible. He did, however, make sure to wait before powering down to match her linear path, but his axis was a little off. It wasn't a big deal but now Ianna had to wait for him to rotate before they could communicate again.

Once he came back around he saw her pointing towards the disc's edge, possibly communicating to bug out and report back. Again, perhaps it was the force but that's exactly what he would like to do right now. Yov threw two enthusiastic thumbs right up and pointed to his wrist as if to say, "when the time is right and the TIE is fully past," then he pointed at her to make the first move to start up engines and beat feet.

She blew into her hands trying to warm them up. With most everything shutdown the heat was slowly starting to ebb out of her cockpit. Her flightsuit was keeping her body warm, but her hands were getting chilly. Waiting for Yov to come back around she started to pull her legs in a little trying to curl up against the encroaching cold.

When she caught sight of him with two thumbs up she nodded her head. Though she tilted her head seeing him point to his wrist. Did he mean a Chonometer, something to do with time? Then he pointed to her. Time for her? She gave an exaggerated shrug making sure to display her hands palms up while shaking her head. She hoped he could understand her confusion.

Yov tried re-emphasizing his message but he was already rotating again. He sighed as he came back down. The adrenaline of bleeding fuel and then doubling down by acting as a second searcher, breaking protocol, and possibly not making it back all washed over him. He wanted to blame the mech crew for the fuel line mishap, but Yov knew all too well how often A-wings break down. He was nearing visual contact with Ianna again and saw her curled up, he didn't even realize the cold was settling in.

Yov quickly raised his hands as if to say wait since the TIE was still within sensor range, then pointed to the edge of the disc again, making motions with his hands that resembling wings for flight - or go that way.

She shivered again, waiting for him to come back around, rubbing her arms to warm herself up. As he signaled her again she nodded her head trying to understand. Wait, wait for something then fly to the edge of the disk. The cold was starting to sap some of her capacity, but she could still understand somewhat. Wait for the TIE and then move. She nodded her head her nose starting to turn a little red though she didn't know if he could see it.

TAG: @The Vanguard

 

IC: Louise "Lou" Gray/Airen Vehn
Black 9
Swordfish System

"Sensors are shot," Lou commented dryly just to kill the time.

"Not any good out here anyways," Airen grumbled.

"A few more hours of this and I'll be officially losing my mind," Lou said as she once more visually scanned the accretion disk.

"You mean a few more hours with me," Airen corrected, "and besides we make a good pairing."

"Says you," Lou teased.

"You know when kiddo is born we'll have another voice to chime in on the family dynamic," Airen commented.

"Not for awhile," Lou replied as she closed her eyes to rest them, "and not if I have anything to say about it."

"You're such a dictator," Airen said, "wonder how you were as a child."

"Difficult," Lou grumbled, "quiet and a bit sensitive. I've had to shut that part of me down with the war. Feelings, emotions, not something that this conflict allows you to have. Well, I suppose that all changed with my pregnancy. How about you?"

"Outgoing, bold, and challenging," Airen replied, "easy to make laugh."

"Yeah somehow that doesn't surprise me," Lou said as she opened her eyes. Had she drifted off a bit? No, unfortunately. Same story. Same accretion disk. And still nothing.

"You have a plan?" Airen asked.

"A plan? For what?"

"You know Dietryk and the Skulls are going to show up," Airen pointed out, "and when they do they're going to be out for blood."

Lou wanted to snap back a response but held her tongue. He had a point. She should've expected the Skulls to show up any minute. Course, now she had an advantage. Her rear gunner.

"The only thing I have planned is the same thing I have planned every day," Lou replied.

"Yeah? What's that?" Airen questioned.

"Survival."

Tag: @Bardan_Jusik

 

(A Marine combo post thanks go to @Vehn @TheAdmiral @Sarge @The Vanguard @Mistress_Renata for their input and collaboration)
IC: Tyrone "Keystone" Clark, Genevieve "Foxxy" Lehrsherr, "Kraken" Kradkans, Mullen "Priest" Shetland, Circuits, and Digger

Gunny Clark sighed as news of the Star Destroyer being spotted caught his attention. There were a few ideas licked around but nobody had committed to anything. For a bunch of leathernecks they were plum out of ideas. They were trained to destroy. Not trained to be creative. Unless it was creatively destructive.

“What about the droid?” Gunny Clark croaked out in his raspy voice. “Can we use it to get a message out to the others? I for one don’t want to be any closer to that SD without backup.”

He realized he was thinking out loud but the idea has popped into his head. He was sure the others were thinking about it as well.

The young corporal's eyes widen just a little hearing that they found the prize. Except instead of a cheap form molded plastic toy, it was a 1,600 meters long monstrosity of durasteel and death. Though his heart was starting to beat he kept the surprise off his face.

"Maybe Gunny," he moved over to the droid, Digger if he remembered right. "Digger, think you can get a message out to the others? Without anyone noticing?" He asked this knowing not a lick of binary. This thought came to him just as he finished asking the question. "Anyone here speak binary? Or have a translator?"

Foxxy frowned, they were the "lucky" ones to stumble upon the ISD. She was somewhat nervous as she didn't like boarding actions. Far too many things could go wrong, things that end in an explosive decompression. She preferred solid ground but she couldn't choose. "GC should be able to communicate with it." she offered.

"It would be my pleasure 1st Sgt. Lehrsherr." GC loomed over the small astromech droid, "Send the alert signal out to local broadcast level only, there should be a flight group near us that will pick it up." The bipedal droid paused to make sure Digger was keeping up, and then continued as if the astromech was still listening. "Coordinates, ours and the Bith. They are in a defensive position but it looks like they don't know anyone is here looking for them. Include the sensor images within data loadout CHARLIE-7-8-1-ECHO, make sure it's stuffed full of garbage code." GC clasped his mechanical hands together, "They won't know what hit them."

Digger swiveled his photoreceptors from speaker to speaker. //QUERY: PREFERRED CONTAINMENT FOR MESSAGE? he asked. //SENDING IN CLEAR IS NOT ADVISED; SUGGEST ENCRYPTION WITHIN A STANDARD IMPERIAL BROADCAST.

GC motioned with his arm like an organic, "standard imperial broadcast my little friend." The Gladiator droid spoke to the rest of the crew, "I look forward to 'getting off our laurels' and 'sniffing out our prey'." GC wasn't always spot on with common organic sayings or when they applied, but he gave it maximum effort.

Clark laughed and shook his head. Droids with "personality" were something else entirely. He understood the sentiment though as he felt exactly the same way. He wondered what it'd be like boarding that Star Destroyer. Would the fight be hard or would it be easy?

"Well," Clark said, "let's get to it."

Digger heaved a mechanical sigh and went to work. A standard requisition form wouldn't attract much attention from the Bith Marquis, especially if it was supposedly sent out by them. The Rebels would certainly pick up on that, and he could only hope that they'd catch the encryption.

Mullen took a step back leaning against the bulkhead letting the tech people handle things. He continued to sip on his water. They had found their target, they had done their job and now they found a way to get the message out. All in all, rather successful, though this was only the first part of the mission, the hard part came next, actually trying to take down that monster.

TAG: @Vehn @Sarge @The Vanguard @TheAdmiral @Mistress_Renata Any Sheep nearby.

 

OOC: Going to jump around a bit here to cover some ground and get us beyond the search phase and into the attack phase as quickly as I can for you all. So apologies in advance if I lose anyone. if you do get lost, just ask for directions either via PM or in the fanclub and I'll do my best to get everything sorted.

GM Update:

Operation MIDWAY
​

IC: Major Beskaryc Taab/Major Grace "Boomer" Valor (NPC)
Leading element Black 3-13, arriving in the Swordfish system

Taab suppressed another yawn as the flight made up by his B-Wing alongside Vixen's X-Wing continued their patrol. They were well past the halfway point now, and soon enough they would have to return to the Intrepid to refuel, and rethink their plan, whether they ran into the Bith Marquis or not. Sighing heavily, the Mandalorian returned to his visual scans when his comm circuit indicator glowed a dull red for a moment before cutting off and then coming back on again. The Iron Cross was picking up a faint transmission. Cocking his head to one side to listen better Taab shut down his active sensors, fearing they would drown out the faint signal. It was an Imperial code, no doubt of that, one he was well familiar with from his recent time in their service. Requisition forms, sent in triplicate as was standard procedure it seemed for the quartermaster corp throughout the galaxy. He had missed the first sent data packet and was just catching the second one halfway through now with his own sensor noise cut to zero. The third he would be able to capture in it's entirety. It had to be from the Bith Marquis or one of her escorts. After all what other Imperial presence was there out here?

The third iteration of the data form began and as Taab listened in, still barely able to make out what was being he sent he smiled. It was indeed from the Bith Marquis. Seemed their water condenser/reclaimator was out and they were requesting spare parts to repair the damaged equipment. Well that was too bad Taab thought, without fresh water their crew would be in a world of hurt in just a few days. Of course the repair ship headed their way would arrive much sooner than that, so Taab had to wonder why send out the requisition now? Once that repair barge arrived it would take care of all their needs, and the forms would be filled out then, not now. The Mandalorian furrowed his brow for a moment before understanding dawned on his rugged face. This wasn't from the Bith Marquis at all, it was just meant to look like it was. It was an old smugglers trick, and one used by bounty hunters as well. It reminded him of the time back on Rhen Var when he'd been forced to send out a similar signal calling for guild reinforcements on a job. It had taken him some time to live that one down, though he had been young and the job had been too big to take on alone. Fortunately few of the other had survived, so his cut of the bounty hadn't been diminished too much, and the dead, well every now and again cannon fodder was required. Still, as Taab decoded the hidden code within the transmission, it gave him some insight as to who Wystari was, ship like that, sending out a transmission like that. Obviously he was a former smuggler.

His smile grew wider as the information within the hidden data packet unspooled. It was indeed a contact report, and for the Bith Marquis and her attendant vessel. Naturally the Valkyria couldn't leave once she found the Star Destroyer, so they were doing the next best thing, alerting the nearest fighter patrol. Now, following the REDBERRY plan, Taab gave a short hand signal to Vixen. She had probably intercepted the same transmission he had, though he wasn't sure if she had deciphered it's true meaning or not. Regardless, it was time to go. He gave her a series of hand signals, the ones meant to put an end to the search and head back to Point Luck, and the rendezvous with the Intrepid. A few moments later they made the jump to hyperspace, making a short micro jump to throw off any potential unseen scouts nearby and then on to Point Luck.

---

Point Luck, some time later

As The Iron Cross and Vixen's X-Wing reverted back to realspace alongside the Intrepid, Taab sent a brief signal to the carrier alerting her to recall the other Black Sheep fighters. "Little Bo Beep has found her sheep..." Following that the flight pair maintained their position, waiting for the arrival of the remainder of their squadron. The carrier meanwhile rebroadcast the same signal to rest of the squadron still conducting their patrols in the Swordfish system recalling them all, all except the Valkyria, back to Point Luck for rearming and refueling for Operation: MIDWAY. Shortly thereafter the other fighters began to appear in pairs around the carrier.

For Flagg and the others the recall notice had brought about a sense of relief, their quarry had at last been sighted, and not a moment too soon. All the fighters would now need to be refueled before the attack, and it came as even more of a relief to them that it was the Vakyria that had obviously (she was the only vessel not here after all) spotted the Star Destroyer. The light freighter had a much larger fuel reserve than the snub fighters, and could stay out there much longer without the need for refueling. Their luck, it seemed, was holding fast thus far.

With most of the squadron thus assembled, the temporary flight pairs of REDBERRY were broken up as the fighters split off to join their normal flights, Able, Baker, Charlie and Delta, for the landing cycle. Delta flight was first (Able flight would be last, with of course the squadron commander being the final fighter scheduled to touch down) which meant Delta 16, piloted by the Mandalorian called Nighthawk, would be the first overall craft to set down. Without a word the flight strung itself out in line as they began to start their initial landing approaches, following Nighthawk as his B-Wing came in, shallow on the glide path, to the Intrepid's port side hanger bay. It was a potentially fatal course, but one easily corrected.

"Power..." the LSO (Landing System's Officer) aboard the Intrepid commed out to the Mandalorian pilot, giving him course corrections to his current path. The words were broken up by static though, readable, but just barely to the others in the flight. There was no response from Nighthawk's B-Wing, and no changes to his throttle settings. "Power." The LSO's warning was more insistent this time though it still went unheeded and Taab began to wonder if R'k'sa was hearing it at all.

"Wave off, wave off!" The LSO shouted on the comm circuit, telling Nighthawk he needed to abandon his attempt and circle around to try again. That transmission seemed to come in loud and clear however there was still no change from the Mandalorian's flight path and his B-Wing screamed towards a collision with the Intrepid's deck. Finally though the craft began to alter course, jerking upwards suddenly and the other pilots of the Black Sheep could see the exhaust plumes from the B-Wing's engines flare out against the darkness as max throttle was applied. It was too little too late though as the LSO screamed out for the pilot to "Eject, eject!" but there was no ejection and the craft collided, first with the upper portion of the port side pod before crashing down to the deck itself and exploded.

Nighthawk, Pilot Officer Vo'un R'k'sa was killed instantly in the explosion as shrapnel from his destroyed craft bounced around the bay, barely preceding the fire caused by his up until then unused fuel. "Fire, fire, fire on the flight deck." The call went out over the ship's internal comm system. "Damage control to stations, fire in outboard port side pod, fire in outboard port side pod." The damage control crew immediately sprang to action, ensuring the fire wouldn't threaten the ship itself. They worked quickly to get the fire itself under control even as flight operations continued underway for the Intrepid. Fourth in line to land Taab signaled out to the rest of his flight to wave off and circle around, waiting new orders from the Intrepid to be relayed through Flagg as he gritted his teeth. It looked like their luck had run out, and now there would be an accident review board to convene. Worse still (depending on your point of view and disdain for paperwork), they were down not only a pilot, but a valuable plane as well. Neither item could so easily be replaced by the Rebellion, or the squadron. Worst of all, and this was even considering Taab's disdain for paperwork, they were down a vital attack craft on the very eve of their strike on the Star Destroyer. Yeah, their luck was just about used up, but the mission, that would go on.

"OK Black Sheep." The signal came through from Flagg's X-Wing. "New orders, land in the outboard starboard side pod. We'll let the 'Raider's gas us up..."

---

​

Outboard hanger deck, Starboard flight pod, Rebel carrier Intrepid.

As unfamiliar crews scurried about the hanger deck refueling craft just as unfamiliar to them, the surviving pilots of the Black Sheep huddled in one corner of the otherwise mostly empty hanger deck. After the death of R'k'sa the remainder of the squadron had landed without incident on the Star Raider's flight deck. They of course weren't using it much because they were on stand down, a result of their own heavy losses. Losses which allowed for the Black Sheep to land with room to spare on the otherwise sparsely populated deck. Efforts were under way by their crew to hurriedly refuel and rearm the Black Sheep for their mission. Sadly none of them knew how to deal with Blackbone's fuel pump problem. They were all B-Wing and Y-Wing techs here and none were familiar with the A-Wing platform. Worse still, the Black Sheep's own deck crew were busy with dealing with the situation in their own hanger deck. The fire there were under control, though not yet extinguished and there would be an intensive damage assessment that would have to be completed before repairs could commence. Hopefully it would be done by the time the Black Sheep returned from their strike mission. In any case, the BlackBone's fighter should have enough fuel for that mission, even with the balky fuel pump. Now the surviving pilot's were all gathered around Taab, with Flagg just to his right, as they looked up at the data the Mandalorian was projecting via hologram from his left vambrace just over their heads reviewing the plan, and how the newly gathered data on the target's position, as well as the loss of a pilot would affect it.

The Mandalorian didn't know how much the loss of one of their own would affect each member of the squadron, especially one so new and on his first assignment with them. For his part he thought of his as a SNG (shabla new guy) until he had actually accomplished something for the Black Sheep, whether he had been a fellow Mandalorian or not. In any case, they all still had a job to do, and that meant moving on from the loss of Delta-16 as quickly as possible. That really left the main issue being that of how best to carry forward their attack now that they knew exactly how and where the Bith Marquis was oriented within the system.

Hot caf and cold cut sandwiches were passed around to those that wanted them as Flagg began to speak, indicating the floating hologram of the Bith Marquis. "OK, so it looks like she is orbiting just above the accretion disc well inward of the rim..." he began frowning in thought. Taab of course had already absorbed that information. It was a lucky thing that the Valkyria had come upon her then in her current position. It was well outside of the initial search pattern outlined in REDBERRY, and if they had taken Taab's advice on how to run the search it would have taken even loner to find. Perhaps then despite the loss of Nighthawk, there was still some small bit of luck on their side. "Looks to have some minimal fighter escort nearby as well as the Prince Eugene," he indicated the Lancer class frigate guarding the Star Destroyer's stern, "covering her rear." He nodded his head as he thought. "From there the Prince will be able to cover above as well as below the Star destroyer, but not her front. We also have the added issue of the terrain, the accretion disc about a klick below the Star Destroyer." Taab mulled that over. Unless the ship changed positions that meant the fighters in his flight would have to get awfully close to the Destroyer's belly with out much of a true attack run, skimming the surface of the accretion disc before getting into position, and they were already down a fighter.

The plan called for Able and Baker flights to skim their way over the "surface" of the accretion disc covering the rest of the squadron's approach. The Valkyria would then land her assault force, hopefully on the bridge tower, so the raiders there could wreak havoc on their systems internally. Once the Imperials discovered that little wrinkle, the attack would begin in earnest with an attack by Able flight on the Star Destroyer's sensors and targeting arrays with torpedoes while Charlie flight moved into position to attack the vessel's forward hanger bay. Delta flight would move into position to attack the aft bay while Baker flight covered the entire assault force and kept the enemy fighter CAP off of them. The Prince Eugene would have been drawn off by that time via the use of the Intrepid herself as a decoy. Both attack flights would work on disabling attacks on those hanger bays while also eliminating the chance of enemy fighters launching from them. Once the raiding party had evacuated from the Bith Marquis, first Delta and then Charlie flights would destroy the crippled (hopefully by then) vessel with a close in torpedo barrage using delayed detonation warheads. Looking at the disposition of enemy forces as relayed by the Valkyria's contact report, Flagg saw no reason to deviate from the plan, but since the plan was already somewhat altered by the loss of a B-Wing, he wanted to make sure. Looking to his Operations and Planning Officer (provisional) he asked the Devaronian, "Any thing we need to adjust Lieutenant Balzroth?"

As the squadron turned to the A-Wing pilot, they were surprised to see Colonel Teague enter the flight deck along with Lieutenant Iala, the ship's communications officer. They seemed to be escorting a Cerean in pilot's gear who followed a step behind the pair. "Captain is inspecting the damage to the port side bay." Teague said by way of introducing himself to the conversation. "This is Pilot Officer Shi-Lara Dolva, she was supposed to be assigned to the Star Raider's as a replacement pilot," he looked pointedly at Major Valor, the Star Raider's XO who had surreptitiously joined the Black Sheep for this mission as Taab's backseater. He shook his head, pretending then that he hadn't seen the young woman. "Wallings used her influence though to have her reassigned to you along with a replacement B-Wing..." Major Valor looked like she was ready to protest. Her own squadron badly needed that plane, and the replacement pilot, but she thought better of it. She was already treading dangerous waters just by being here. Flagg meanwhile looked the new replacement up and down for a moment. It was dangerous to add yet another new member without putting her through her paces first to see what they had, but they needed the pilot. "All right Dolva, you're on Wolf's wing," he indicated the Codru-Ji Flight Officer Lurell, "as a part of Major Taab's Delta flight." He indicated the Mandalorian XO of the squadron who was still projecting the image of the contact report from the Valkyria above their heads. "Just listen to them and do what Wolf does." It wasn't much of an introduction, but hopefully she would understand what they were up to, and what they were up against, from that holo image.

As introductions were made, Lieutenant Iala cocked her head to the side and held a hand up to the earpiece in her right ear before reporting what she'd heard to the Colonel.. "Fires are out in the port side bay. She sounded relieved. Colonel Teague nodded at the news. "Damage control efforts are still under way there, but the fires being out means the ship will still jump in system to act as a decoy for you." He addressed the Black Sheep in general and Commander Flagg in particular. "So mount up and launch when ready. Co-ordinate with flight ops." With that he spun on his heel and left the flight deck headed back to the bridge, the communcations officer following right behind.

TAG: @Adalia-Durron @BobaMatt @Sarge @Mitth_Fisto @Mistress_Renata @Vehn @TheSilentInfluence @Rebecca_Daniels @Anedon @TheAdmiral @galactic-vagabond422 @The Vanguard and a special TAG for @Bacta Bubble Bath, welcome to the Black Sheep!

OOC: As mentioned at the beginning of the update, I know I bounced around a bit here but I wanted to move us forward a bit to cut through any potential boredom and get to the action sooner rather than later. All player characters (aside from those assigned to the Valkyria) are in the outboard starboard side flight pod (the Star Raider's hanger) of the Intrepid for our final attack briefing. Any questions or concerns can be asked either via PM or in the X-Wing fanclub.

 

GM Update Part II: Operation MIDWAY​

OOC: Still splitting this up so everyone gets the appropriate tags. Again any questions, you all know how to reach me.

IC: Lance Corporal Manx "Terminal" Bane (NPC)
Aboard the Valkyria

With the contact report sent on it's way, in what Bane thought was a rather clever way, all the Valkyria and her complement of marines could do now was wait. Hidden within the cloud of the accretion disc they could still barely see the shadowy form of the Bith Marquis through the murky haziness above them. The gunboats seemed to have disappeared for now, landed probably on the Star Destroyer, and they had counted at least two standard TIE fighters which seemed to maintain a partial patrol around the vessel. The vessel that the marines would be tasked to infiltrate once the rest of the squadron arrived to begin their attack.

The Duros took a deep breath, for those marines now the real work was about to begin, and so each went about preparing him or herself in their own ways. Bane himself passed the time making sure his DLT-20A was in perfect working order. Nothing more embarrassing, and more lethal perhaps, than a weapon that malfunctioned in the first moments of combat. That was especially true of a precision weapon such as the DLT-20A. The slightest miscalibration and Bane wouldn't hit precisely where he was shooting at. Looking to the other marines in the lounge, all preforming similar checks on their own weapons he was sure his thoughts mirrored theirs as well. he wished the Black Sheep would hurry up so they could all get this over with.

TAG: @Corellian_Outrider @The Real Kyp Durron, other marine characters ( @TheAdmiral @Vehn @galactic-vagabond422 @Sarge @The Vanguard and @Mistress_Renata for Digger

 

IC: Shi-Lara "Runaway" Dolva

Outboard hangar deck, Starboard flight pod, Rebel carrier Intrepid.

“You got it. Now, which one’s mine again?” Shi-Lara asked as she looked at each of the ships docked in the hangar. Truth be told, she didn’t know the difference between a Y-Wing or an A-Wing or… whatever. Instinctively, she knew whichever ship she hopped into would be a piece of cake to fly despite how many or how few controls it possessed. Just came naturally.​

With her elbow bent and her finger pointed outward, the Cerean woman closed one eye and stuck out her tongue as she used her fingertip to point at each ship and make a mental assessment.

‘That one’s gotta be the X-Wing ‘cause it looks like an X. Maybe they’re all based on letters…? That makes the most sense. So which one looks like a B… be… bee….’ She thought to herself, cupping her modified flight helmet under her arm. Her nose scrunched up in frustration and she decided that the one that didn’t look like any other alphanumeric character had to be a B-Wing based on the process of elimination.

Once that selection had been made, she shot her eyes in the direction of the Flight Officer that Colonel Teague had indicated. In a few eager, long strides Shi-Lara was already up in the woman’s personal space with a quick salute and an even quicker handshake on whichever hand out of Lurell’s four were unoccupied.

“Just gotta do what you do, right?” She beamed a smile. “Seems easy enough. They call you Wolf?” She broke it down in her minds all the reasons why it could be. ‘Maybe she’s a loner? Or maybe she’s just vicious. Ooh! She’s likely really loyal. That’s gotta be it.’

The pause between her thoughts and her words were less than a few beats, processing everything with Jedi-like quickness.

“I guess they’re calling me Runaway, but that’s fine by me. Looking forward to flying with you!”​

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik @Mitth_Fisto Anyone else

 

IC: Louise "Lou" Gray
Starboard Hangar Pod
Intrepid

Lou stuffed another sandwich into her mouth while the briefing was conducted. She was starving. Never been so famished in her entire life. That was three sandwiches in the last five minutes. That many hours of sheer boredom had a way of drilling a gnawing hole of hunger in her stomach. So too did growing another human being inside of her.

"Lou," Airen whispered, "might want to take a break."

"What?" Lou said as she finished another sandwich. That made four.

"You know the others might want some food as well," Airen pointed out as he sipped at his hot caf.

"Right," Lou remarked as she returned her attention to the briefing.

Flagg carried on like he always did. Charlie flight was tasked with taking out the Bith Marquis forward hangar bay. Lou liked that idea. The forward hangar bay could be the harder target when approaching the belly of a Star Destroyer. Based on the way the Bith Marquis was oriented toward the accretion disk part of the mission's usual field of combat had been roped off. In this particular arena the action would be intense as the combatants would not have as much room to perform their deadly dance.

"I like the idea of delayed warheads," Lou whispered.

"I thought you would," Airen replied with a knowing smile.

Lou's thoughts wandered to the loss of a fellow combat pilot. She felt slightly bothered about the death of R'ksa. To blow up in a botched landing wasn't something one heard about too often. When it did it was a shocker. She knew that despite the technology of the age in which they lived mistakes could and did still happen when it came to piloting. There was still the need for a sentient being behind the controls despite the efforts in the past to have computers or droids flying craft.

She didn't get to know him. Like so many of the 'new breed' Lou had kept to herself. It was a form of protection to prevent getting hurt. And like so many of the 'new breed' R'ksa fell in such a mundane and ordinary way before they'd even really settled in to squad life. The Black Sheep were cursed when it came to new recruits. Or maybe the new recruits were cursed when they came to the Black Sheep and their number simply came due. Either way the loss was harder to process than she thought and definitely unexpected.

Lou's attention turned to Colonel Teague who'd just entered the hangar with a new pilot. She studied the person briefly who was a Cerean and listened for name. It was something she'd have to work at pronouncing. She gave a brief nod but stayed withdrawn inside. She didn't want to get hurt again in case this person died as well. There'd been a heavy attrition with the Sheep. Maybe if Shi-Lara Dolva, Lou had to remind herself how to say her name, lasted a few missions she'd take the time to get to know her. For now, however, she'd keep her distance.

Teague mentioned something about the fires being cut out so the mission was still on and Lou could finally breathe a sigh of relief. They were going in and they'd be going in hot. She slipped on her flight helmet, gave Airen a wink, and the pair ambled over to Lou's two seater and took their positions.

The engines began to whine, fully fueled, as Lou began her startup sequence. She looked back at Airen's helmeted head and whispered, "Happy Hunting."

"What?" Airen questioned over the engine noise.

"Nothing," Lou replied as the canopy came down sealing off the loud hangar bay, "nothing at all."

Lou did another scan of the HUD. Torpedoes were armed, systems were operational, and she could hear Airen testing out the rear turret mounted on the top of the cockpit. A little whir here, a groan there. Yes, the turret was working just fine. They were ready. She pushed her nerves aside.

"Charlie lead, ready for takeoff," Lou said.

The response came back affirmative.

"Launching," Lou replied as the Y-wing left the hangar bay behind and slipped into the stars.

Tag: @galactic-vagabond422, @TheAdmiral; @TheSilentInfluence; @Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Ianna Mcear
Swordfish system.

She was still shivering curled up tightly trying to warm herself up as her heat was sapped out of her. Her mind started to drift, thinking back to the last time she was warm, it was just before leaving for this mission, standing on the deck Jeen taking her hand and kissing it. Her heart beat just a little faster, a little bit of warmth fluttering in her chest, though it did nothing for her freezing fingers and toes. It felt like this TIE was taking forever to just go away. She just wanted to get back to the Intrepid get warmed up and see Jeen again if even if for only a moment. Call her lovestruck or head over heels, but she just wanted him here, something warm to hold.

Eventually the TIE passed out of range and Ianna turned everything back on. As she did her comm blinked the signal to bug out, thought that was what she and Blackbone where going to do anyway. Heat wasn't immediately returned, her hands shook as she wrapped them around the flightstick. Her breath was short setting her coordinates and jumping out of the system.

_____
Intrepid, Starboard Flight Pod

Ianna was cold even wrapped in a thermal blanket, her eyes were looking down as Flagg went over the mission. The new pilot, Nighthawk was it...she felt terrible never getting to know him before he passed. Like she failed somehow, everyone in the squadron was her friend, everyone, even the ones that she didn't really know all that well. Her hands were wrapped around a cup of something warm, caff, hot chocolate, it was working to bring feeling back into her hands. Her encounter with the cold was slowly fading away. Like ice slowly melting out of her veins.

She took small sips waiting for the order to take flight once again, mind still thinking of Jeen. Their techs Jeen included were busy putting out the fire left by Nighthawk's deadly crash. She hoped he made it out alright, and unharmed. Again she was thinking about him when she should be thinking about the mission.

She shook her head looking back up, she noted where her flight would be taking out the forward hangar, hopefully preventing them from launching more fighters again her flight would be the hammer brining down ordinance to batter them down. Through this wouldn't be an easy mission, none of them were. Spying the new pilot joining them she made an effort to at least greet them in the only why she knew how… She ran up to them and wrapped her arms around them in a big hug.

"Hi, I'm Ianna Mcear. I'm really glad you've joined us." she beamed looking up at the other woman with her best smile.

After letting go of Shi-Lara, she blew into her hands one more time shaking off the last of the cold before jumping into Serica again.

Following the newer pilots, Eliana, and Alec Ianna prepared to launch.

"Charlie 3 launching!" She called out a smile on her face. "We're going to do great." She said over the Flight comm channel.

TAG: @Vehn @TheAdmiral @TheSilentInfluence @Bacta Bubble Bath

 

IC: Ethan Malek, Amber Tehanis(combo with @Adalia-Durron)
Hangar

R7 already waited for him and welcomed him to with a friendly whistle. Ethan gave the little guy a pat on the dome before he sat down in his pilot seat and prepared for the start. Another battle ahead, another chance to die, just a few days ago he hadn't worried so much about it, but now there was someone waiting for him. Again the pain overcame him and he tried his best to suppress his emotions. To distract himself he opened a private com channel to Amber, he had seen her during the briefing, her hair burned and sadness on her face. "Hey, saw you in the corner during the briefing, are you okay?"

The engines were coming up and Amber glanced down at the damage caused by Jeen's invention. Sure it'd saved Taab, and her skins, but she hoped it hadn't done any serious damage to the ship. For all she knew there could be weakened systems or something more sinister. He comm opened with a question, it was Ethan. She gave a small smile as she responded. "I'll be fine, just need a haircut and a good nights sleep Veteran." She said attempting to sound amused.

"Sending us tired into battle, our commanders have truly nerves, I really wonder, do they want us to die?" Ethan said putting his dissatisfaction with their leadership in his voice. In the ORSF deicated scouts would scan the hostile area instead of using regular pilots for that tireing them out.

Amber sighed. "We haven't got other options." She conceded, "But look at this way, they think we're cannon fodder? Let's show them how wrong they are." She said it with more bravado than she actually felt.

Haven´t we shown that to them before? Ethan wondered but said nothing as he didn´t want to destroy Amber´s bravado. "Just be safe out there, okay?" He asked her, she had become a friend, a good one, maybe even his best in the last weeks.

"I will if you will, you just watch my six and try and keep up." She grinned, somehow he'd lightened her mood and she felt the need to torment him a little.

"Already had your six before you were even born," Ethan returned her teasing. Light hearted talk like this would hopefully help both of them to clear their head before the upcoming battle.

Tag: Anyone

 

IC: Kayn "Mean Streak" Balzroth
The Big Briefing Scene

"Any thing we need to adjust Lieutenant Balzroth?" asked Flagg in his flat tone.

It seemed that their Boss was simply going to ignore Nighthawk's unexpected crash. Sure, as if anyone here doesn't have that image burned into their brains. Maybe Flagg has deleted it from his memory, but the rest of us should process it at least a little.

"No, sir, we can do it just like we rehearsed, except better, without the computer sims messing us up. I just want to remind everyone, the most important step of the operation is the one you're on at every moment. Don't be so focused on winning the battle that you forget the basics, like take-offs and landings. We've all done this before, many times, and we'll all do it again. Just stay focused on the moment."​

He tossed a data disc to Teague. "Nighthawk killed a TIE fighter out there today. My sensor record will confirm the kill. That should mean something to his next of kin. Now, we've got a big fat target waiting to be killed, so let's go blast it. If all you Black Sheep make my first squadron ops plan a success, I'm buying all the drinks at the victory party. Go Sheep!"

TAG: All the killer Sheep. Baa baa baa!

 

IC: Maxime "Max" Pallas
Briefing, Main Hangar Deck, Intrepid

Max had been as shocked as everyone else at the crash landing of the B-wing. She couldn't feel more than vague sympathy, as she had never met the man. She wondered if anyone had? Still, he was one of them. A Rebel. She pondered what had gone wrong; there hadn't been any indication of an issue. Though B-wings were notoriously fragile...

The coffee was welcome, it was always a little cool in space and Max preferred it that way; kept her alert. She wasn't especially hungry, but she made herself nibble a chunk of cheese wrapped in bread. The mission itself was deceptively easy, broken down to its basic components. Fly around, shoot Imps, don't die. She nodded to herself as the particular assignments were detailed and took a deep breath at the mention of A-flight's specific mission. Glancing over at her new flight mates, her hand automatically slipped inside her pocket to touch the braided corley wreath. Malek, who had lost the stomach for combat. Tehanis, the Diva who loved being the center of attention, no matter the risk to herself or anyone else. And Flagg, willing to ignore solid evidence of treachery and the endangerment of the squadron because...why? She had to hope he'd care more up there in black, since she was his wing.

The corley was smooth under her fingertips. Mom, you'll have to put some overtime in on this one. I don't trust these people to buckle my boots, much less have my back. She took a second unhappy look at her new team, then took a last swallow of caff. A Cerean was brought up by Teague, destined for the Star Raiders, but stuck with the Sheep, at least for this mission. Cereans had a reputation for being incredible pilots, something about the dual brain. Max pursed her lips and stared at her boots, hoping the woman's career would live down her foray with this squadron.

Flagg waved them off, and she almost thought he'd held her eye for a moment. But he didn't say anything, so she went to her ship to do a quick walk-around before mounting up. She licked her fingertip and pressed it to the black bird painted on the side. The mission might seem simple in description, but in practice, she was sure it would be anything but.

TAG: Anyone