Log:Black Squadron: Phantom Jammers

Black Squad takes out some jammers

OOC Date: April 20, 2021
Location: Corellia
Participants: Black Squadron, Jessika Pava, Ektor, Bors Thul, Suralinda Javos NPC, Poe Dameron

Jammed signals. Comm silence. It made communication impossible and missions unnerving. It's the very situation Black Squadron finds itself in now. Unable to communicate beyond obscure handsignals from their cockpits, the fighter squadron follow the winding river in hopes of finding the culprit for this predicament. They had all been briefed to watch out for civilian marked boats bearing a very specific comm array. They kind of comm array that jammed signals for long distances.

To pull this off, it /had/ to be day time. Which, in itself, was a threat. Moving in daylight made them easier to spot, easier to track, and easier to shoot down. The tradeoff was that this entire situation was a double-edged sword. Sure the Republic couldn't talk, but neither could the First Order. Intelligence advised that these boats on the river might have TIE escorts. Poe left the brief saying, "With any luck, we'll make the trip worth it." Translated, that meant, he wanted to take out the TIEs too!

The squadron follows the river, flying low with their scout vessel (Bors) at the forefront, and their bombers (Xer and Javos) bringing up the rear. Poe's s-foils are still locked in cruise and engines at max. He flies on Jessika's wing, idly swaying away from the large tail of water the spouted up from Bors' A-wing engine propulsion. Poe maintained this formation with ease though; he knew the pilots well!

"Divert power from the bottom fuselage emitters and feed them to me on the port, starboard, and top." Jessika speaks to the only individual she can right now: her astromech, Ailee, slotted into the starfighter's maintenance section and currently lowered into the bay to use her manipulation arm as instructed. Jessika's eyes snap towards the multi-colored display panel just beneath the transparisteel viewport she's been staring out of to see the readout change. "Be ready to adjust as necessary." Her commentary is terse. They're not in a good situation right now and the tension is gnawing at her. This kind of low flying is dangerous. She's trusting in herself not to skirt the dirt--or the water, in this case--and to maximize her protection in case they get attacked from above. And with the jamming going on? She'll only know once they start firing at her. She can't afford to constantly glance at the sky above and keep her eyes peeled for the boats they're trying to find.

The hand gestures from Ektor aren't terribly useful, even if they are universal. For once, the Tionese pirate's squadmates are spared his rambling chatter as Black 3 glides just above the water with a higher pitched whisper than that of the roaring X-wing engines.

Out ahead, eyes peeled, Bors hums to himself ever as he runs on point to try and find anything the boss might be looking for, or things they didn't expect. Fine country... truly he is the most generous of Alderaan's lords. This is Corellia, it may have been fine country once. But it's Corellia.

C O R E L L I A.

But despite those issues of his eyesight and his clear insanity his span of observation is one that still rings useful and his manic need for speed and 'playing' in his RZA-2 is worked into everything that he might as the wedge shaped craft slews to one side and then banks hard and his fuselage is twisted vertical, showing those behind him his bubble canopy with him looking up and his hands moving. Angling to cut across and towards the back lines to avoid smashing into compatriots

Ten fingers, then pointing at the sky, then pointing at his fabulous moncole! EXCITED POINTING.

Then four fingers and pointing... well down towards the bottom of his cockpit. Anything else? Well it's fortunate he got that out before he had to take the controls again and heel over, flying inverted towards the watercraft.

"Topsy turvy day it is, old man." a throaty laugh! For none but he!

The sudden change in direction leaves quite the wake in the water, and the waves span out from the point of origin to reach the banks of the river. Two boats heading TOWARD Black Squadron jump the wave, getting some air before landing back in the water, while two others heading AWAY from Black Squad remain unaffected. High above, in the direction that Bors goes (and if others follow), a squadron of ten (10) TIE/fo begin to make a descent toward the smaller squadron. It may be difficult to see because it seems like Black Squad has to look into the SUN to see them.

Poe locks the S-foils into attack position, using the sudden drag to tilt his nose skyward, before shoving the throttle for his afterburners in. IF Jess took a glimpse at Poe before he left her wing (Spot at 125), he pointed up VIGOROUSLY!

It looked like Poe and Bors were going to cross swords with Desh Squadron, leaving the boats to Xer and Javos for the time being.

Jessika misses Bors' gesturing from the cockpit while trying to set eyes on the right boats. She doesn't miss Poe's frantic motions. The repeated stab of his gloved finger towards the sky is either telling her to go kriff herself or to look up. When she looks up, she's greeted by a wide array of TIE/fos screeching down towards them through the atmosphere. "Readjust the emitters!" Following Black Leader's adjustment, Jessika locks her own s-foils into attack position and uses the sudden deceleration to drift the back end of her snubfighter towards the water. The bottom edge of her fusial engine's thrust nozzles almost scrape. Water is kicked up in a harsh burst of thrust when her left hand slams the throttle forward to full power. Racing skyward, Jessika aims her craft at an intercept vector to keep the squints from reaching their bombers. As further discouragement, she unleashes a rapid barrage of laser cannon fire that stitches through the air and batters one of the TIE/fos. Its shields are oblitered and its hull becomes pierced. A violent explosion from the back of the craft are the engines going out and a thick trail of black smoke follows it all the way into the river. It pierces through the churning surface and vanishes to never be seen again.

Ektor's good eye catches the disruption on the water in an instant: two surface craft moving rapidly toward them as Poe and Jess rocket upward, another pair speeding away. In a snap decision, Ektor arms a proton bomb, sets it to a short fuse and in the time a normal person would need to think 'maybe a bomb?' Lieutenant Apollyon has armed, adjusted, dropped, and banked to pursue the last two alongside his wing, Javos. His light bomber shudders with the shockwave of the detonation that consumes both surface craft. Comms are still jammed, so none can hear Ektor cackling and crowing.. but you still *know* he is.

What ho! Success! What vigor he sees in the gesture of Poe when he looks back. Vigor indeed and trusting Ektor's love of make explode he wheels around finding the rhythm of his movements in a humming tune. Some 'docks' ditty that he picked up somewhere during his tours for the Republic.

It's somewhat bawdy. Mention of sober men and drunakrds. Pretty girls. Jessika would likely be upset with him, because he's singing more than the bawdy lyrics.

Poe might shake his head and laugh.

Ektor definitely knows it. He probably knows the exceptionally raunchy versions. That Ektor, what a chap that one.

"If you're bent wi' arthiritis," seeing his crosshairs go green and his craft spits crimon, "n'your bowels have got colitis," twisting over to try and make the escape corridor for his target a narrower thing, "You've gallopin' bollockitis, and you're thinkin' it's time you died." shooting past the squadron with his engines screaming, head shaking and gesturing vigorously over his shoulder in a fashion like Poe's. But he's not gesturing to go up, like Jessika interpreted.

OH! Things are exploding. That Ektor. Swell chap, him.

The TIE'fos RACE down toward Black Squad, some blitzing past the intercepting fighters to chase after the bombers. The mission is already at half success with the quick deployment of a short-fused proton bomb that expanded in blast, breaking the sound barrier, before transforming into an explosion that loomed behind the pair of Y-Wings creating a tidal wave of shattered boat pieces, bodies, water, and even some of the surface down deep below the waters surface that was brought to light by the churning physics of a massive combustion!

Poe wanted to scream into the comms to call out where the TIEs were, but they were still being rekking JAMMED. Javos' attempt to pull off a similar maneuver like Xer's ends in failure, and the boats survive the wake of the explosion only to speed up and split apart. Now TIEs further complicate the issue and settle on the five fighters, trying to blast them from the sky much like Desh Two had been just moments before.

"I see em, I SEE EM!" Poe yelled to BB-8 when the snubfighter rocked from a glancing blow. "Damn it!"

The split is messy. Jessika hears an explosion go off somewhere behind her, she thinks, but this wide open space makes it difficult to tell. Rather than continue skyward after the craft trying to engage them in aerial combat, Jessika flips her snubfighter's nose groundward and races down towards the TIE/fo that have slipped past them to harass the Y-Wings trying to deal with the boats and the signal jamming. Two attempt to swarm Suralinda Javos and Jessika dips in behind one of them with a harness-straining pull of gravity helping her feel like her stomach is trying to shift right outside of her torso. Attempting to light up the TIE/fo, all Jessika succeeds in doing is turning little parts of the river boiling hot when the water swallows up the shots from her quad laser cannons. The TIE/fo pilot is not resting just because it trails after a slower target.

Ektor banks and jukes seemingly at random as his bomber skins the surface of the river, managing to weave with uncanny ease through the hail of descending TIE cannon fire that sends up hours of steam as they strike only the river. Some patches of river may catch fire, this is Corellia, after all. A crooked grin tugging at his lip, Black 3 closes on the remaining pair of First Order jamming craft, flipping fire control from proton bombs to laser cannons. "Don't worry Bombshell, we got these Hutt-suckers," he drawls, not caring that no one can hear him. The two boats have already apart- "Rekk, it's like they don't even WANT to get blowed up," he complains to.. no one. The ruby stream of energy from his nose cannons rakes over one of the remaining comm craft, scattering more wreckage across the river basin.

Why is it he's so very excellent at shooting on the ground... But not dodging?

Meanwhile he is like a GNK droid drunk with tainted energy in its cells for shooting, but like the little rodent weaving through the crowded ballroom when evading in space or air.

It is the very epitome of marvels and wonders for the galaxy to try and suss out but may run mad at trying to find the answers. Dancing past crossfires of green energy blasts Bors spins over and banks around with a strafe of fire for his own - sizzling the air, warming paint, and incidentally one, very nauseous, gnat that has been trapped in cross-winds and jet wash for the past forty five seconds.

Take that, Collateral Gnat!

<<"TAKE THAT YOU HUTTSUCKIN' BOAT!">> Javos hot-mics as the fourth massive explosion sounds off and consumes the last boat. She spins before angling up toward the sky and feeding energy to her engines! <<"Thanks for the cover, Testor!">>

<<"If I get hit one more rekking time,">> Poe laments, still being chased by this persistent TIE hot on his stern and firing near constantly.

With comms back online in the SECTOR, progress can be made tactically from all units, which also means Black Squad's mission priorities just shifted to their secondary objective. TIE Fighters. <<"Boats are gone now, team. Let's clear the skies here.">> Poe calls, then glances back. "Now's the time, buddy. See what you can do about my shields!"

If Desh Nine is going to continue to harass Suralinda, Jessika's going to continue to harass the TIE. The pair of TIE/fo can't manage to land solid hits on the Y-Wing, but Jessika doesn't have the same issue. There's only so much juking the TIE/fo in front of her can do when Javos is flying a slower starfighter, and Jessika capitalizes on that opportunity by being patient. Her targeting computer draws up a solution and she aligns her reticle with the lead floating across her vision as its super-imposed over her yellow-tinted visor. Jessika squeezes the trigger on her flight stick and the laser cannons light up again. The bristling tips spit deadly fire along her target's shields. They're battered and shimmer violently, but they hold. Not by much. <"Don't thank me yet! They're still on you!">

Ektor has attracted another tail as the squadron's comms crackle back to life. <<Ha ha haaa! Boom, baby! Arright Bombshell, lets join the party, yeah?>> The first two TIEs are evaded with ease, but the third- the newcomer- lands a solid double blast to his dorsal shields. Ektor cackles again, with the surface objectives knocked out, he climbs rapidly from low altitude, joining the dogfight in earnest. No longer held to a flat plane of maneuver, the Y-wing turns its guns on one of the more nimble TIEs without immediate success.

'Bleep beep twiddle beep!' 'I know! I know!'

That's what would have happened if Bors had a droid socket. Or if he was schizophrenic. But he has none and he isn't. So that brief exchange doesn't occur.

What does?

"Hahaha! Nice try!" dropping thrust and falling while directional thrusters push his nose up and his engines kick to full strength while he sees another target coming at him, wheeling into a spin as he jumps upward again from that second wave. Only to find just... So many blaster bolts coming right at him, eliciting a most manly and courageous,

"AHHHHH!" in a tone that he will assure any who asks was a very deep and baritone 'Ahhh!' of bright and gentlemanly excitement. And not the blood curdling high pitched 'AHH!' of flight-suit dampening terror just before instinct kicks in and he turns over again, watching the canopy bubble go opaque with the sparks and glow of his shields being scraped along. He fires wildly in desperation, good shots for the time they're made. But the TIE leader is a squadron leader for reasons!

Wait. Were comms back when he screamed? Dwang... Quite the pickle.

Poe's shields go up! Poe's shields go down. "Come on, buddy! You can do better than that!!"

Another of Desh's TIEs explode in the air, bringing the count down to eight (8) total. Poe races low with three TIEs after him and he laughs over the comms. <<"I think we have their attention!">>

<<"You think?!">> Screams back Javos as she tries to encourage Xer's tail away, only succeeding because she flew toward them, not because any shots landed. Desh Leader seems perturbed with theA-wing plaguing them. They fly angry, blasting at Bors like the Alderaanian owed the officer creds! Jessika is successful in bringing one of Javos' tailing fighters away, but she gains a tail herself!

<"Less a think, more a know!"> The Squamatan pilot means to be sarcastic. Jessika banters back by being serious. She's focused on her target. It breaks from Javos' Y-Wing and Jessika breaks with it, pouring extra thrust into her engines as it begins to speed away. It allows her to weave out of the sights of the TIE/fo pair hot on her tail without losing sight of her prey. The new angle allows her continued pursuit and Jessika wastes no time in squeezing the trigger on her stick again. This time, Nine's shields don't hold. Jessika punches right through them and the craft itself. It explodes above the river and decorates the water with superheated debris that'll sink and be lost and forgotten for time immemorial. <"Black Two, scratch another! Coming around for the idiot still on you!">

You think? <<Hang on, lemme make sure,>> Ektor mutters with an audible grin, As he switches to unencrypted open channel, <<Hey out there, this thing on? Oh look, it is! Somebody must've blowed them boats up, yeah? Any idea where there's a good bar around here?>> He punctuates the verbal idiocy with a well placed double blast to the shields of Besh 10, accurately predicting the pilot's deft evasion.

TIE on his six, high, low. Embarrassing - or impressive depending on ones point of view. Bors's shields flaring as a skipping stone of green fire taps across and darkens the paint on his starboard side.

"Well then!" what's he going to do? Maybe keep them busy long enough for Jess, Xer or Poe to get this guy. But to his credit - he has done a fantastic job of distracting them from their job. Then of course there's his next move.

One hand pops up, visible in his bubble canopy and the gesture being given to Desh leader is not something pleasant and complimentary to their mother. Or father. It's really rather quite unpleasant. It's downright poor mannered indeed. "Come now, sort yourself on that, yes?" another giggle as he puts both hands on the stick again, cutting all thrust as he banks right. Turning as he drops and bringing the nose of his craft up, skimming shots past the ball cockpit just before he cuts back in thrust once again.

A little plink. It's like they clapped palms in passing!

<<"Plenty of bars, IN HELL!">> Screams back Desh Leader, who thinks that's BORS talking drek over open comms. Anger intensifies. Meanwhile the firefight is still on, ships dipping and ducking, and laser cannon fire that misses pocks up the river water only to live behind small silver slivers of floating dead fish in its wake!

Jessika isn't the only one intent on getting rid of the last craft stuck to Javos' tail. She pushes from her mind the memory of being in the cramped confines of one of those spaces buses on an extended trip with Suralinda and instead angles up to come down at the fighter she finds is being chased by Ektor at the same time. <"Quit playing with your food, Tion!"> She rides the trigger easy on this one. The last thing she needs is some friendly fire incident. Still, one of the laser cannon blasts smashes into the target's shields and leaves them so dim after they finish oscillating that she can't tell they're there. She stays on Ektor's six by adjusting speed and playing back-up just in case the bomb-obsessed veteran can't finish the job in the next pass.

Ektor has flown wing with Jessika enough that the moment Black 2 tags his target, he anticipates the evasive maneuver they'll use to flee from the Great Destroyer, and the TIE flees right into the Y-wing's guns, being blasted apart in a satisfying atmospheric fireball. << I hear you, Jess. Besides, his drek-talk was trash. He coulda said 'plenty of bars in PRISON' and that woulda been *something*, yeah? Just a sad lack of imagination, really.>>

The oldest trick in the book. Only a Maverick would think to do it and that no one had ever thought of it before. Slamming the flaps for his air-brakes while reversing thrust; Bors almost stops dead and.

No.

No way.

Desh Lead shoots past him, not fully and not without banking to get clear of most of the cannon shots being sent their way. But that... <<"Must be embarrassing, chap! I do say - the old Brake Maneuver! How did I get that past you! Shall you simply power down and let I or one of mine end your embarrassment thusly?">> Bors is pretty surprised, tell truth and he feels quite poorly that his ruse worked. For the one it worked against even more than he thought of it.

"Mother forgive me."

"Stang," Jessika curses under her own breath and not over the communications net. The boats have been down and the battle has evolved into a pure air-to-air engagement, but that's almost made things more difficult. The TIEs are allowed to use their speed to full effect and make strafing runs against the Y-Wings rather than trying to babysit on their butts. It also means being able to outmaneuver the X-Wings. They've always had that capability. Less firepower and less shields, but a talented pilot in a TIE might not even need those things. Jessika banks after another one of the fighters once Ailee relays that all friendly craft are good. They've got to spread the love around and Jessika doesn't try to focus in on the one's swarming her squadron members. She focuses instead on the ones that have been harassing her, even if all she does is strike the air on the first pass.

Ektor tracks another of the fighters that plague his fellow Y-wing, and tags one TIE with a hit that brings its shields to the brink of collapse. <<Finish em off, yeah?>> as a quick scan takes in the rest of the battle. The TIEs are dropping fast.

A fair dance of rage and giddy glee (and some guilt) for Desh Lead and Bors. Red and green weaving around one another and were they lesser people they may be vomiting for the hard turns and twisting on axis made while they joust. Seemingly at a constant of spying glimpses of one another's sides or the aft end of fuselage.

<<"Mother alive. Poe. If I had been in heavier craft this day I might have been dead - this is madness!">> he's laughing though, despite the problems of the tight furball consuming so much of his attention in trying to get clear. A high speed, screaming, dance between two who may have likely rather spend their day in some pilot bar, not out here fighting to death over a river.

Well it depends on if Bors offended him and a glove was drawn! THEN IT WOULD BE A DUEL!

<<"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH--">> Is the response from Desh Lead who is beyond calming down at this point. They blast their way toward Bors, just continuous fire trying everything in their power to bring down the A-Wing.

Meanwhile, Javos swoops in when prompted by Xer, blasting apart and TIE in a professional trade-out maneuver that ends with her droid informing her that shields are back to maximum. <<"Thanks, Tion. That guy had it coming.">>

Poe answers Bors, <<"If you had been in a heavier craft, you'd have a droid to help with those shields! So I doubt you'd be taken out! Haha!"> Poe takes a hit when he skims low over the surface trying to lose his tail. He sights in on four again, ready to call it a day!

Jessika can tell the dynamic has shifted. Twice now she's attemped to land shots on one of the TIE/fo and twice she's missed. They're climbing higher away from the land and the river to give themselves more room for maneuvering. It puts the TIE/fo at an advantage against the X-Wing and in a superior position against the slower Y-Wing. The only card they have up their sleeves now is their own personal experience and the tactics they've learned for dealing with multiple fighter craft while they're outnumbered. It basically boils down to picking apart the targets as a team. Still, Jessika is still solo on the TIE she chases while Ektor and Suralinda work as a pair to eliminate another one on the field. Desh continues to lose numbers while Black Squadron remains full strength.

<<That Guy had it coming- THIS guy has it coming->> Ektor chuckles as his Y-wing blasts through the shields and impales Besh 7's central eyeball in a single perfectly placed salvo. He veers on to rake the hexagonal solar panels of Besh 6, cutting deep into its shields. <<*This* guy has it coming.. let em have it, Bombshell.>>

There goes professional courtesy and Bors is showered in sparks as shield readouts give warning of their near collapse while compensator systems are strained by the sudden overloads springing all along the soap bubble like glimmer that becomes opaque cyan and tearing in points. Paint is scored, armor damaged.

<<"Think he's upset.">> shaking his head, <<"I suppose now would be the wrong time that I think theirs might be the sister Ektor found in that bar back on Bespin before we got kicked out? And I only now have been hit! Unlike most of you, friends!">> Yawing over and flipping his craft into a tight loop that puts Desh lead in his sights. Cannons shredding through shields and chewing along armor plates along the curve of the ball cockpit, that are likely sparking off integrity warnings inside.

<<"Now now! Nary let rage take advantage good sir! That's your disadvantage!" Oh... He has fun.

The last two survivors of Desh squadron break off and cut low for speed. They dip beneath sensor range and race out of sight, leaving the day to Black Squadron. Poe chuckles and looks over the squad before angling his craft back toward the mountains. <<"Best get back to the Old Battle Axe. She probably has another mission for us. Good work, team. I'm sure we'll see Desh again.">> Poe closed his S-foils and increased his speed, racing back for the mountains and their hidden rebel base.