Log:Black Squadron: Draw Out the Wolves

Black Squad baits a trap of their own.

OOC Date: October 5, 2021
Location: Naboo
Participants: Black Squadron, Jessika Pava, Ektor, Ulani Kalgaav, Bors Thul, Rune, Poe Dameron

Flying low and avoiding sensor range are a detachment of ships angling for the pressure points indicated by Naboo Royal Intelligence as ambush locations for these pirates. The group that's Black Squadron consists of the YT-2400 'Outrider' flown by Commander Jess Pava and crewed by her loyal and overly attentive droid Leebo, Ensign Ulani Kalgaav, and Lieutenant Ektor-Xer Apollyon manning one of the formidable double heavy cannons. Tailing behind the Outrider is Poe, Lieutenant Bors Thul, and the Jedi Rune. Poe's voice is the one that breaks the radio silence as they increase speed to supersonic, breaking the sound barrier with ease.

<"Outrider, Black Leader.. go ahead and bait the trap. Buhbors, when we have positive I.D., I want you to jam the area. We need to deny them any chance of recovering from our surprise. Do your best to keep them off the Outrider.. but I suspect we'll all have our hands full. Everyone check in for the logs..">

As the ships pass over the tops of the tall trees, green canopies jerk and sway from the gravity of their speed, leaving behind a trail of green as they rushed toward their area of operations.

<<"Seven, Leader, copy you.">> Back in his beloved A-Wing. Sleek. Speedy. Maneuverable. Far superior to his own shabby flappy meat legs when it comes to moving - it's a fine day for Naboo, surely it is, with the Alderaanian behind the stick and doing his best to not key his mic while the myriad of dock songs he's picked up over the years pass this lips.

Gently patting the throttle lever with its carefully etched and enameled 11 at the very top, it was good to be home. <<"Dropping back to prep-distance and observing. Jam on mic-break; so be ready to drop your comms and save thine ears.">> oh the lovely static that comes with the jamming. And all the fancy squiggles on sensor reads.

And the absolute hate bent his way from the opfor in such circumstance.

<"Black Leader, Outrider. Moving to set the trap."> The burst of encoded transmission relays back along the military encrypted channel from the Corellian freighter to General Dameron. Angling the navigational controls of the Outrider, Jessika moves one hand to the throttle to ease it farther forward just enough to feel it adjust. The sublight engines on the freighter flare brighter in the Naboo sky, speeding it along towards the virtual marker designated on her sensors. "Leebo, why don't you go ahead and make for the engineering compartment? We might sustain a lot of fire right out of the gate. I can tweak the emitters from here. Or Techie can." A vocorder warble is her response. The droid leaves the co-pilot seat and heads for a designated spot they'd discussed prior. Jessika double checks that the ventral gun is locked and fixed in the forward position. Through the headseat, she transmits only over the ship. "Remember, Tion, wait until they're on us first. We don't wanna scare 'em too much."

Ektor is ensconced in the Outrider's dorsal turret, swiveling lazily in the gunnery chair, and quietly weighing whether anyone could hear on the comms if he started drinking. When Poe *finally* breaks radio silence and bids them hair the trap, he cracks a crooked grin and drawls, "I hear you, Jess. Or should I call ya Honeypot Pava, yeah? These Hutt-suckers gonna break their teeth tryin to bite off a piece of this boat."

Ulani has found herself a comfy seat in the Outrider. A nice little spot with a much smaller console than the one she is used to sitting in front of, but definitely a much bigger gun. Testing the guiding system of the turret, Ulani is slow to respond to Poe's order but only by a few seconds past some of the others. <"Black Leader. Techie copies."> Jessika's brief conversation with the droid catches the armourer's attention and with a creak in her chair, Ulani leans over the arm and twists around to call back towards the Commander. "I can if you want, Testor. Wherever you need me."

Rune made sure to spend some time familiarizing himself with the cockpit of the T-85 X-Wing, having mostly flown freighters and the ETA-2 Jedi Starfighter. Even now as they fly close to the treetops, he looks over each of the controls, mentally taking notes of where every toggle, button, and switch of import are. The comms spark to draw the young Jedi from his thoughts, his helmeted head lifting to peer out the cockpit window at the ships that fly in formation nearby.

<"Uuuuh... Black Five, checking in. Everything seems nominal."> Rune replies, giving a small wave to the others. The flight seems smooth so far, Ecksdee warbles and beeps quietly behind him, enjoying the low altitude flight instead of their normal space excursions while Rune clings to the flight stick, staying in formation and on target.

<<"Roger.. and here comes the parade. Stand by..">>

As if on cue, a series of Nssiss Clawcraft rise up to the occasion, blazing forward with modified engines and bringing their weapons online. A general transmission crosses the open channel as the squadron leader of pirates comments, <<"That's a fast ship.. should make for an excellent addition to our collection. Let's bring em down, boys... see what sort of juicy cargo it's got!">>

Poe opens the S-foils, and rises up to sensor range. <<"Bubors.. do it now, buddy!">> Afterburners on the Black Leader's engines ignite and the X-Wing angles quickly to close the distance with the Outrider to join its wing. Ahead of them, 12 Nssis Clawcraft approach, lasers blazing!

"Ambush is tripped! They're on their way." Jessika's speaking over the Outrider's internal net again. Leebo has entered the engine compartment of the freighter and braces for incoming impacts while the rest of the crew simply waits to close the distance. "Hold!" The sensors tick down rapidly. The Outrider is faster than all of these ships, but Jessika's reserving the speed. She doesn't want them to know what kind of things are hiding under the freighter's hull. "Hold!" She's lined up with one of them on the approach, but she ignores the itch in her fingers. Not until the enemy craft open up first at half of max range does Jessika pick that moment. "FIRE!" The Outrider responds in kind. Lighting up the night sky with vividly red twin beams, the first craft in her sights is almost turned to slag immediately by the power of the freighter's guns.

<<"Copy!">> the last thing they hear of... Well anyone on comms. But it's Bors who spoke last! Huzzah for him as the great blanket of painfully screechy static descends upon every channel within kilometers and sensors begin looking like ink-blot tests on glitter-stim spice. Black Seven surges forward like a mynok after an exposed power coupling. Coming in behind one of the claw craft before a tender and oh-so-caring goosing of the throttle brings the A-Wing up and inverted.

Bors has time to wave and offer a cheery smile to the canopy of the other craft. He even mouths an overly friendly 'Hellooo!' before his cannons open up in time with the drop in thrust. raking fire down the length of the opposing craft, chewing away shields until emitters spark and the other pilot is probably cursing at and shouting down shield alerts.

"Oh. No. An ambush. Whoever coulda guess? I am soooo rekkin panicked right now, yeah?" Ektor drawls with a dumb grin audible in the deadpan words. Jess calls the hold, and Ektor doesn't even swivel the guns onto target, entertaining himself by imagining a hasty run from his bunk up to the turret. He eyes the clawcraft, his good eye narrowing in curiosity. "What the rekk are those? It's like if an X-wing was allergic to straight lines." Jess calls the shot, and he brings the big guns to bear, opening up a salvo on one of the forward fighters. The pirate fighter is clipped by one of the heavy bolts, weakened shields collapse, sparks fill the cockpit, and the burning craft plows into the planet.

Maybe it's not too late to switch stations. The parade is coming and soon the drums will be beating. And those drums are going to sound a lot like missles and turrent blasts. And hopefully not much like enemy fire hitting their hull. The possibility of this all going sideways gets very real and Ulani makes a snap decision.

With Jessika and Ektor on guns, there's plenty of firepower already. Perhaps she should do what she does best. "Leebo! Wait up! I'm coming with!" A click of her restraights allows the fire-haired woman to bound out of her seat and race for engineering.

Of course Leebo does not wait up because such a command is 1) far too vague to make sense and 2) not a direct order issued from the Commander.

When the enemies engage Rune follows suit, rising from their low crawl over the trees to appear in sensor range. He flicks a couple of toggles on the dash, his X-Wing's S-foils opening with a satisfying clunk while the shields around the ship hum to life. He angles the craft to fire at one of the approaching Clawcraft. <"I see them, firing!"> The Jedi calls in response to all the comm chatter, receiving nothing but static due to the jams in response.

With a grim look he depresses the trigger on the flight stick to loose all four cannons at the nearing pirate. The pilot seems either more prepared or more experienced than him, the offender rolling in between all four shots to fly by unscathed. Ecksdee beeps sadly as the two ships blaze by each other, his domed head swiveling back to watch the departing pirate escape. "I know! We will do better the next time!" Rune replies, already pulling back on the stick to come around for another pass.

The initial joust is formidably controlled by the special forces unit which is responsible for disabling 1 fighter and killing two others right out of the gate. One of those kills belongs to Poe Dameron, who banked hard and picked apart the fighter with continuous blasts from the X-Wing's cannons. What's left of the craft falls from the sky in a trail of black smoke and wreckage, disappearing beneath the treeline.

Poe is quick to gain a tail, and he zips by the Outrider, spinning away from the three doing their best to hit him. "I see them, I see them!" He says to BB-8 who is rather worried about their current situation.

Meanwhile, everyone in the fight has ample targets to deal with, even the Outrider is taking fire. Leebo, who is in the engineering section offers Ulani an engineering kit, but before it can be passed over, the droid suffers from the gravity of the ship's movements and the tool box top opens, pouring tools everywhere. Naturally, Leebo blames Ulani for not taking the toolbox in the 100th of a second time frame he offered it over. Not only does the droid begin to pick up the tools, but it places them gently back into place, like each item is a component to its artful engineering reputation.

"Good shot, Tion! Leebo, be nice!" This is spoken as a precursor to any shenanigans happening in the engineering room, because Jessika is too busy flying and lining up shots to divert her attention. Not that she can hear the droid anyway. Two of the craft single out the Outrider to open up on it, but Jessika knows better than to stay in one space. She twists the Outrider to the side without taking it vertical and banks it around. That's the source of the sudden jostling of the engineering toolkit out of Leebo's hands and onto the deck of the ship that's busy trying to avoid getting hammered by the oddly configured craft that have come after them. "See if you can't get some of those tails off Pee-Bee, Tion!" Whether or not Ektor even has the angle to do so is something only he knows, so it's not a hard and fast rule. Leebo almost sounds like he sighs at the flung around tools and leans down to start gathering them up, and can be heard muttering that they'll never get away with flying like that.

"Oh, we didn't like that, did we?" Jostled by inertial compensators fighting the kinetic impact against his craft shields, Bors has a giggle in his voice, having weaved through most of the return fire lighting up the air all around him, making shields flare from proximity and then with the spreading wave of the deflectors dissipating the array of small blasts spattering across them.

"They said he was a hero, and not to grieve for the two ruin't legs and the empty sleeve. Took him home and they set him down withamilitarypagent and a medal from the crown!" thumping his hand on the side of his canopy, ecstatic behind the controls. "But'ye haivn' an arm! Y haivin' a leg! The enemy nearly slew ye, y'll have to gooutintothestreets an' beg!" Slewing around to pursue the wheeling path of his prior foe who seems to be quite content to keep from getting tagged once again by the singing fop who needs to pay far more attention to his target leading.

Focus Bors!

"Dash it all, and I rather enjoy that jig."

Ektor turns the dorsal turret with a hiss of well kept machinery to blast away at one of the clawcraft trailing the deadly freighter. The pilots- while outgunned- are clearly not stupid, and the one Ektor intends to blast drops below the Outrider's engine line, effectively removing itself from Ektor's field of fire. The former (?) pirate is annoyed and shoots anyway. When Jess calls out a new target he nods (not that she can see him). "You got it, lining up new targets..."

Down in Engineering, Ulani catches up to Leebo in time to be offered a toolb--

The ship lurches and everything tilts very sharply. A cacophony of metal tools and gadgets clatter around on the ground; ringing through the hull like a hundred little, annoying bells. Finding her balance, Ulani looks at the mess all around them and then watches as Leebo takes his sweet, droid-time meticulously putting each tool back in it's proper compartment. Like the worst game of Perfection.

"... for real?" Shaking her head, Ulani makes her way over to a console so she can monitor the ship's statistics; trying her best not to trip on a wrench of roll an ankle on some lugnuts.

There's a sense in the Force that tingles the back of Rune's neck, the feeling that something isn't right but he's uncertain of what... Fortunately Ecksdee's wail clues him in to the fighter closing in on their tail, the warning allowing him half a second to crank the stick to the right and back before a trail of blaster fire lights the area where the X-Wing was moments ago. The missed attack slices branches from trees, leaves and bark flying into the air, and displaced wild life squawking furiously at the intrusion of their home.

Rune rockets toward the sky, spinning a tad before he banks to plummet back toward his initial target. The novice pilot arrives on the Clawcraft's tail after a few seconds, the target indicator beeping on his display. Squeezing the trigger, the Ysannan blasts the craft in front of him and two of the four cannons light the shields of the ship. The craft tries to veer off course after being struck from behind. Rune pursues as best as he can, giving chase through the air to try and finish them off.

An alarm goes off in the cockpit of Black Leader and the warning indicates a concerning number representing the shields. BB-8 says they've been hit, and Poe, who is jostled violently in his seat as a result, replies back annoyed, "No, you think?! See what you can do back there, buddy!" Poe manages to keep his focus despite the heavy fighting, but it's just intense enough he can't watch the rest of the battle.

Meanwhile, the others are experiencing the same amount of attention. Crafts spin and flip, rolling by one another as laser bolts go in all manner of directions lighting up the sky and making it a beautiful show of warfare.

In engineering, Leebo has just finished taking the last of the large tools and stowing them back into the engineering kit. Jessika's order to be nice is not forgotten, but it's also not responded to. The droid, meticulous in its effort, begins to group the lugnuts accordingly, only for the next movement of the Outrider to spill the contents of the toolbox once again, sweeping it to one side and causing an explosion of tools to go every which way. There's something like an oil pan, or bowl, that's slowly rotating after the main clatter, constantly spinning and spinning loudly, as bowls do. Leebo doesn't seem put off by the sound as the droid is still grouping lugnuts and has abandoned the tool box, for now.

<"Black Leader, Outrider. It looks to me like you're getting shot. Stop getting shot!"> Jessika brings the Corellian freighter swooping in behind the craft pursuing Poe to line up on them with the fixed forward ventral gun. It also gives Ektor an opportunity to open up, but neither of them connect. Jessika's shots pass close enough to one of the claw-winged craft that it colors it red, though, and if nothing else, those chasing Poe know that they're in the sights of some pretty big guns at the moment. They'd gotten to see first hand what had happened to the other members of their squadron in the process. "I swear that droid messed with something. This feels all wrong!" She says it to herself, but it's broadcast to the ship anyway because of the headseat.

Another bout of fire being brought down on him and Bors's only answer is to cut thrust and let his craft drop like a stone, nose angling downward with the growing scream of carefully controlled, uncontrolled, descent until he's clear of the cannonfire that was threatening to cage him.

Toggles flipped and several dials turned as he plummets, the heavy clunking that proceeds both of the overpowered engines of his fighter is the only warning. Throwing himself backwards while directional thrusters force his nose up, the Lord Thul's excited whoop fills the cockpit, joined by the ring of tone from his targeting system.

"Think we dropped too much altitude." the lead indicator is all over the place - as are Bors's shots! Everywhere but on target! But he soars, soars like a thranta on speed-stimmer spice! So majestic! So wired! So rocketing skyward at breakneck speed with no one to share it with because jamming.

Ektor blasts away at the trip of clawcraft trailing Black Leader, but the distance, the rapid movements of the targets, and the slower rate of fire of the heavy lasers mean that Ektor's best contribution to the dogfight is that at least he didn't hit Poe. "Uh.. yeah, Jess. I think you're right. I mean, you're *usually* right- except when I am, but this time I think we're both right, yeah?"

In Engineering: The scene isn't getting much better. Another lurch of the ship and the toolbox's contests are spilled out across the floor again. It's as if someone were trying to read tea leaves at a carnival except the tea leaves are screwdrivers and the carnival is an aerial skirmish of pirates versus special ops with copious amounts of explosions.

Ulani has resigned herself to leaning against the bulkhead with her forehead in her hands. This could certainly go better. And the chatter over the comms is not helping. Taking her eyes off Leebo in his ceaseless endeavor to organize and categorize his lugnuts, Ulani looks down the corridor she had come from; biting gently on her bottom lip.

This time when the hair rises on the back of his neck, Rune doesn't even question the meaning, banking hard to the left to avoid a series of blasts that streak by the X-Wing's belly. His eyes are narrowed, brows furrowed in concentration as the high speed dance plays out in the air above Naboo.

A couple of keen flashes of light off to his left draw the Jedi's attention, his regard noting the flashing of Poe's shields as they take beating from the heat he's pulled. <"Coming in to help!"> The Ysannan calls as he breaks that way. Leaving his target for now, Rune screams through the sky to loose his cannons on one of the offenders. Three blasts later, the Clawcraft zooms away, it's shields just barely protecting the ship. Rune waves to the General as he flies by, the ship that was chasing Poe now finding itself being chased instead.

Leebo has finished storing the nuts back into the kit and transitions to collecting the tools now. Again, with delicate care and droid-like precision, Leebo calmly places each instrument back into its proper place. Jessika's doubt in his work earns a raspberry noise from its vocabulator that issues some rude response back, over the internal comms. Finally, the tool box is closed and latched /just/ as the craft lurches again, and the box is swept away to collide with a nearby bulkhead, though because it's latched, it does not explode again. The bowl is still rotating though.

Poe deals with one of the three chasing him, blasting them right out of the sky and segueing to a second, damaging their shields. If Poe responded, it only came back in the form of static, but he passed by the Outrider and Rune alike, two following him and blasting away. He seems right at home in it despite the concern.

The rest of the Nssis Clawcrafts seem to be holding out, and they've paired up to each Black Squad member, including the Outrider.

Black Leader streaks by the Outrider and drags a pair of the starfighters around with him. Jessika does the best she can to keep the horizontal gyro from ever going upside down, because Leebo and Ulani don't need to be flipped on their heads, but the freighter is still performing some sweeping turns and angle changes. "You alright in there, Techie? Could use you on missiles if you're getting sick!" The targeting computer has her solutions on the craft and Jessika lines up her reticle so the ventral gun has its opportunity. It lights up once, piercing the claw-winged craft in its sights in a bright flash of twin beams. A second time obliterates another, clearing Poe's tail. <"Your six is clear, Black Leader!"> A hard bank towards the A-Wing in their formation leads Jessika to fire another pair of lances at the craft tailing Bors, but Jessika misses it by a hair in aerial combat terms. <"Keep him guessing, Bors!">

"Oh dear." full warning tone from his sensors and then the clawfighter's weapons are opening up. This could be a punch-out moment, or perhaps even a punched ticket. It's been a good run. After all, how many fighter pilots make it past thirty? Let alone kiss forty? A legend if only for the length of his service years; truly a competitor for Antilles's record for service length.

Wait! No! No! He has -REASONS- right now. REASONS!

Bucking the A-Wing over into a tight spiral that turns into an inverted half-loop, just as the first of the shots begin chewing into his shields, sweeping out of the line of fire before they can be blasted down and the hull of his craft blasted through. Then more fire comes and he sees that Outrider craft rocketing past mixed with squabbling sounds trying to get through comms. Trajectory skewed by the jetwash of the freighter, Bors is sent careening one way - then another with crimson fire all around.

And the fighter he'd been chasing earlier on a head to head. "OH! Splendid!" tightening his craft spiral while squeezing the firing stud and pumping rapid-fire cannon blasts directly through the center of the fuselage on his way to line up to where he can look through the Outrider cockpit screen.

From Jess's side? Bors looks like he's shouting 'Hit jam!' and 'Pants spear you!'

Ektor's wild laughter is audible in the Outrider as Jessika flies the light freighter with more art than a ship of it's size should manage. "Rekk em up, Honeypot!" he cackles, while laying down a firestorm of heavy cannonfire at the pair of fighters still tryng in vain to hit the Outrider. One of the two is struck and explodes in a very satisfying fireball.

In Engineering: Well, the ship hasn't exploded yet not has the hull taken any damage. That's definitely a good sign. If Engineering isn't running around with their heads cut off, that means the battle -- logically -- must be going well. Right?

She can catch Jessika and Ektor over the ship's intercom but nothing otherwise of what's going on outside. Yet there are no curses to the Maker or swearing to avenge, so Ulani assumes everyone is still okay. And as much is confirmed when Jessika announces a few of the hits and misses.

"Everything is fine done here! Systems are all green and levels are nominal! I'll head up!" Deciding that if things get really dire, she can head back down to help with repairs, Ulani turns to make her way back towards the main deck. But not before grabbing the toolbox, unlatching it, and unceremoniously dumping all the tools out onto the floor one more time.

Damnable Leebo.

It feels like the return fire is never ending, Rune having to twist and weave through the sky to keep the attacks from connecting with any portion of his craft. Fortunately for the new pilot, the Force is with him and has been aiding in his efforts to stay alive. More cannon fire streaks by his ship as Ecksdee whirs and beeps in his spot behind the cockpit, the droid able to see the battle in full view. Rune stays on target, following the one he chased from Poe's tail... until it explodes in a fireball and the rubble drops below the tree line. The Jedi cranes his head back to see the Outrider flying past, moving to engage another Clawcraft that harried Bors.

That particular one being dealt with, Rune turns to deal with the next on Lord Thul's tail, the X-Wing zeroing in on the attacker to try and remove him from the sky. Four blasts later, three of which hit, the shields are in a state rather close to the one he fought before... The novice Force user zooms by the pair, pink engines flaring brightly before he yanks on the stick to bring the ship rolling to the right. He's bent on keeping his Squad mates as safe as he can, his sights turning to another opponent who is chasing one of his own.

In a matter of seconds, what had been a formidable squadron of pirates was reduced to heaping slags of fire and debris, colliding with the cliff face below. Poe laughs as he sees the Outrider zoom by, its light blue engines flaring as Jess took it on a mission to help Bors. This clues Poe in to follow despite his picking up another tail as he engages one of the two on the Alderaanian. Rune successfully pulls one away, Poe kills the other having come down from an angle.

Three pirates left and they seem to have no idea where their team is because they press the attack. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, maybe they just thought they still had a shot. Poe, Rune, and Jess are reminded that they have tails while Bors gets off safely.

Jessika finds it's actually difficult to not somersault, loop, or otherwise flip the Outrider in ways that will fling Ulani around the hallways like a sack of flour left out of the galley cabinet. It's a constant part of her thought process, and maybe that's why it feels so weird to fly the Outrider: she's got, in some fashion, clipped wings. But it's more important to make sure her team member stays safe than to do some fancy flying. Besides, the Outrider isn't hurting, and its hot guns have had something to say during this battle. The ventral one talks again and Jessika watches a bright burst of sharpnel and fire when the dual heavy laser cannon lances through the craft's aft section. It doesn't outright explode, but it plummets, and Jessika knows its engines are gone. That pilot, unless they eject, is going to be nothing but paste in the swamp.

There were ships on his tail, he was sure of it. Then the shots were stopping and it was a wonder at who did it. For the scantest of moments his hand hovers over the button to disengage the jamming his A-Wing was providing. Floating there, over the tantalizing... Candy red button. No not yet! There's still that one there to be attended to.

Flipping the craft up onto its edge and fighting the pull of gravity the RZA-2's rapid fire array opens up again in a high pitched staccato burst that slices past shields and into the engines of the claw craft to turn it into something not unlike flak and Bors is screaming past - waggling his wingless fuselage towards the other members of Black, fighter and freighter alike.

"Soon may the Thranta-man come! To bring us glitter and spice and rum! One day when the tonguin' is done, we'll take our leave and go!"

Bright side: Jess can't hear him singing.

Is it really a bright side?

Ektor keeps up turret fire on the dwindling selection of targets, still chuckling under his breath at some humorous quirk of galactic whims known only to him. Of minor note, he doesn't hit anything.

Somewhere in Engineering: Leebo finds all of the tools scattered about the deck. Odd, how did that happen? Oh, well. Unpreturbed, he goes right back to carefully placing each one back into their spots. Two get mixed up somehow and he removes both of them, sets them down, then picks one to place. Then the other. Then adjusts them to make sure the fit is correct.

Somewhere not Engineering: Ulani has a much quicker pace than the obsessive droid she left to monitor the ship's vitals. Grabbing the co-pilot's chair at the baack, she half-spins it around and flings herself into it; riding it around as it rolls to face forward once more. Fingers fly over the console; taking command of the missile systems and locking in on the remaining enemy aircraft. "I got a lock. Prepare for fireworks." Hopefully.

Blue eyes glued to her screen, she waits for the opportune moment and... Outrider releases it's final farewell: a pair of concussion missiles racing ahead to turn the last vessel into a fiery ball of see-you-later.

This time, though Rune still has a Clawcraft on his tail, the shots go wide and allow him a moment of respite in the furious battle. He looks for a target among the fading opportunities, both Jess and Bors removing two of the three remaining pirates airborn. Clearly then, the last one is on his tail... He summons all his ability, twisting and turning through the air trying to dislodge the pirate from his six.... until a bass clap announces the meeting of the last Clawcraft with a concussion missile from the Outrider. The ship explodes in a blaze of glory, the flaming bits disappearing into the foliage below, and Rune flies free to rejoin the rest. A smile and a wave given to the rest of the crew as he pulls back into formation. <"Nice shot!">

With the last of the pirates blasted out of the sky, they're given a taste of their own medicine. Successful, for now, Black Squad makes a wide loop taking to the higher altitude. The Outrider at the center followed closely by the snubfighters. When the jammer is turned off, Poe's voice, robotic over the encrypted net, says, <<"Great work, team. Let's see if that makes them sloppy. Let's Arr-Tee-Bee for now.">>