Log:Resistance: The Day Long Awaited
Resistance: The Day Long Awaited
OOC Date: January 04, 2020
Location: Naboo System
Participants: Dreman Bryce, Ektor, Kylo Ren, Oran Arcantael, Leia Organa, Tallissan Lintra, Karé Kun, Callax Dalso, Kisaiya, Kaelyn, Karas Darkwing, Miri Sakir, Lofty, Sar Yavok, Merek, Zandra naMuriel, Finn, Rey, Chewbacca, Elrych Cometburn, Poe Dameron
It has been weeks since the last combat scramble in Naboo. The pirates of ReulTta have chosen the better part of valor since their last admonishment, leaving the comings and goings of starships in the system to proceed in peace.
Blue 2 is on missile interdiction duty above the *Warhammer*, whose mighty Acolyte cannon has remained primed for firing halfway between Naboo and its sun. The Y-wings of Gold Squadron are on patrol, at present, with Red Squadron on standby and- as always- Black Squadron on emergency response. The frigate, corvettes, bulk cruiser, and support craft of the Resistance fleet all hover in the void, poised and waiting, for despite the pacific nature of day to day travels, any reprieve from battle is defined by being temporary. On one day or another, all know the calm will end and the storm will break.
This is that day.
With jarring suddenness, the deadly bulk of the First Order Mega-class destroyer *Supremacy* lurches into realspace, utterly dwarfing the massed ships of the Resistance, and promptly vomiting TIEs by the squadron into the void. Alarms blare on every comm channel sounding battle stations for the military, and take shelter to the civilians. Yet as the Order deploys and the Resistance rushes to respond, the main cannon of the *Warhammer* remains dreadfully silent.
The lead pilot on the present patrol gives a low whistle and mutters, "Looks like they came to play, yeah?" Switching comms on, he signals the other Y-wings, <<Fall in above and below the Big Gun, Wishbones.. do NOT screen from in front, cause we about to see a real big boom, annnny second now.>> Ektor grins, but the expression starts to face as ever growing numbers of TIEs flood the void, without any grand blast from the Warhammer. "Just.. wait for it. Annnny second." Pause. <<Hey, why aren't they blowing up, yet? Gold one to.. uh, EVERYONE. We need everyone!>>
In the Beacon Outpost command tower, amidst the hasty extraction of essential materials that accompanies the long expected, but still sudden evacuation of a military facility, Captain Connix is calling loudly, "Status on the Warhammer-" answered promptly from communications, "Warhammer reports firing sequence blocked- some sort of outside interference-" Connix snaps toward the Intel section, where a harried Zeltron reports, "Already on it- reading a.. twenty-five tiered viral encryption, coming from the Destroyer- I'll need an hour to unlock it, at least-" she says, knowing they do not have even a fraction of that time, but trying anyway.
<<"All Resistance Forces, this is Commander Dameron. The First Order has arrived. This is NOT a drill. All hands battle stations, unlock docks, and come about. All squadrons launch!">>
Poe Dameron is seen sprinting down the corridor of the Valor and right to his X-wing up on the fighter pylon. A few moments later, his launches into space. Shields are brought online and s-foils locked to the open attack position. <<"This is Black Leader, all fighters form on my wing. We're to protect the weapon and prolong the invasion for AS LONG AS WE CAN. Everyone, watch each others' backs. We've trained for this; now let's focus on our mission.">>
The Noble Horizon is a pretty ship, shimmering in the sun of the Naboo System as it rises up from Rori. Glittering like a gem in space, headed out of the gravitational well for a trip to... who knows? Who can know? Leia rarely gives people her schedule book to read over. Coming and going as she desires...
But when emergency signals errupt all across her status board with the arrival of the Supremacy and other Star Destroyers, her course changes sharply, "Winter, full power to engines..." Squinting at the massive M class Mon Cal cruiser with the Arclyte Cannon fixed atop it.. "Why isn't it firing?" That's a solid question and one that has her concerned. <"This is General Organa to the bridge crew of the Warhammer.. weapons free on incoming destroyers...">
"Nothing Mistress..." Winter says with a pensive expression and a glance at the General.
"Land us. I'll go find out what's going on..."
When the klaxons go off, Miri is in the refresher on the Valor. She leaps out with well-practiced reflexes, shoves herself into a jumpsuit and flightsuit, smushes her hair on top of her head and slams her helmet down on her still-wet hair. If she survives, she is going to be a walking rash, she thinks to herself as she sprint-squelches down the corridors of the ship, throwing herself into her prepped bird, and taking off. <<Black 8 standing by>> she says over the coms. <<She-Wolf on your wing, boss.>>
Lofty and his Sullustan co-pilot Haozipliirs Stebbs were shaking out his repaired and upgraded GAT-12h skipray blastboat with a trip from Rori to Naboo. Of course no trip to Naboo would be complete without stopping off at the Adarian donut shop in Theed. Lofty now has a box of Adarian-style donuts, twenty in all, including iced with chopped ettel nuts, Trammistan chocolate, muja fruit-filled, iced Endorian maples, shredded Ishi Tib-cracked cocounut, Yowvetch custard-filled, cake iced with dark matter sprinkles, fluffy Christophsian powdered sugar, and divine dianoga cream-filled sitting on the navmap shelf next to the ion cannon controls. Stebbs shouts from the sensor officer's aft cabin, "Ni aroka! Rangi mutune, i aya magiuka!" Loosely translated, it means 'red paint on the sensor screen' and 'here they come.' Lofty pushes the throttle forward, coaxing power from the new KDY Boshaa-C'hi ion drives. "This gunship Krak'jya, joining fighter screen," he says over the secured channel. An R2 droid aboard the ship trills with alarm and plugs its scomp link into a port on the wall.
Kisaiya is flying near her sister, she's in the E-wing and her sister is in the Wyvern. She's currently oriented perpendicular to her sister so she's looking up through the top of her canopy to look at Kaelyn in profile in her cockpit. Of course... that was all before space seemed to suddenly change. The entire landscape of what she saw in front of her suddenly became... wrong.
"Umm.. Wyvern." Kisa looked forward instead of up toward where her sister was. She reaches out and taps on the scanner, as if her eyes were lying but maybe the scanner was broken and that would fix it. Hallucination or something. "Huh. Umm... oh hells. You're going to say we should go help, huh?" Flick, tack, tack, a series of switches, a few buttons, as she shuffles the power around right and angles herself toward the First Order ships.
"Let's go play, right, Wyvern?"
The emergency klaxon, that old familiar friend, hadn't visited for several weeks. A calm that hadn't set well with many of the pilots. It only interrupts captain Lintra's meal this time, catching her in full flight uniform. She and Fiver sprint down the corridor from the mess into the X-Wing hangar, jostling for position up the stairs to the launching pylon. She launches after several others in the squadron. <<Black Five, forming up on your starboard wing Black Leader.">>
Having secured his own Black Squadron fighter through some means or another, Lt. Colonel Sar Yavok launches from Yelsik's Valor and settles in for the long haul. "Rolie, you know what you're doing back there, so if I start yellin' at you, just know I'm frustrated, alright? Ain't nothing personal," he assures his R2 unit who chirps in response.
<<On you, Dameron. You just lemme know what I need to do,>> Sar comms, eyes turning to the flood of information coming across his screen.
Like the rest of Black Squad, Kare Kun has her boots to the suspended walkways of the fighters with her R5 unit just behind her. Rev is cooing and then shrilly beeping its annoyance at her. "Rev, I have nothing to do with this. Sounds like its the big day," she says as evenly and focused as she can. She passes the maintenance crew and nods her head, shoving and strapping her helmet into place she is quick to buckle her harness. She waits for Rev to be secured behind her cockpit and then she is given the thumbs up.
The usual emergency checklist is consulted before the X-Wing pulls back and away to follow after the others birds that are currently spilling out into the void of space. As soon as she breaks free of the Valor she snaps her foils open like a cobra ready to attack. <<"Black Four set and ready. Heard Black Leader.">>
Merek is settled about into the Gold 1, as a gunner in position. He does take a moment to begin charging up weapons when the First Order arrives within the airspace, taking a moment to place both hands to the controls while the helmet links up with his targeting computer. "Alright Tion, let's show the First Order we are not here to play."
That's a stomach dropping call, that is. The klaxons, the sirens, the flashing lights. This is something Zan hasn't experienced yet. It takes Poe's voice coming through to get her moving. Thankfully, she's on the Valor, in her flightsuit, on standby today. She jumps to her feet, and races for the fighter columns, headed straight to Black 10 and boarding. She's ready in a flash, waved okay to launch and hits space. << Black 10 forming up,>> she calls immediately. The A wing might look a bit different from the rest of the X wings in the flight.
Kae was having fun with her sister, this was well a day that the two are having a blast goofing off, like completely goofing off and just enjoying flying fighters.... < Imma thinking.....> Kae pauses as her sensors light up... And then on the private channel < OOooh we's in troubles>.
Kae blinks < Well if'n you want Sis, lets tell em we'll form up with their fighters... Umm how many big space battles you been in?> Kae asks curiously, Kae's actually been in a number since the last time the two were helping out the Resistance... Kae then switches to her known Resistance channels << Reisistance pilots, you have two friends out here. The E-wing and unidentified fighter type here. We're offering our assistance, tell us where to form up>> Kae says, and yup she's gone from goofy all serious as she angles the Wyvern toward the Resistance scrambling squadrons. She then switches back to private channel to her sis <We gonna has to watch each other tight, this is gonnabe an absolute fog... I've helped loots with similar engagements working with, well you know who and all, sooooooo yeaaaahl.. if you get one on your tail, call it out, if you see one on mine call it out, I'll do the same..> She says and grins a bit as she throttles the prototype fighter to full throttle as she intercepts with the forming Resistance fighters << Resistance, I know we're not much but we're here to help.>>
Shortly after Supremacy jumps into system, it's followed by another monstrosity of the Order machine: the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer, armed and ready for battle! Dwarfed as usual by surroundings larger than himself, aboard that huge war machine is a small black speck, a short-ish man with a tall, proud posture, in dark robes, with dark intentions.
"Lovely to be back," Oran muses, then commands the bridge crew. "Intercept escape vectors for Rori, deploy TIEs, and if anything tries to leave this system, shoot it out of the sky."
Sitting in his cockpit awaiting orders, things were coming to ahead and now here it was. Hearing the alarms and the orders to launch and launch he does. Karas T-85 drops from the pylons as it rockets through the shields and out into open space, <<Black 6, ready to rock and roll.>> he says into his comms. "Spark head on a swivel man." he says as he flips the switch which activates his shields. Black 6 slices through space and gets into formation with the rest of Black Squadron.
Callax was on the /Flurry/ when the call went down, having not long ago finished a tour of the system in his own private fighter, trying to bait out pirates to shred with the TIE Avenger's cannons - he's still in his own pressre suit when the alarm goes off, and instead of waiting to switch out he charges for the docked /Valor/ in the paramilitary suit, helmet under his shoulder, running for the ship and his assigned E-Wing as though the world might break open without him in a cockpit right then and there. Which if might, really, from a certain point of view.
Babo is already socketed in Black Nine as Callax reaches it, scrambling up the boarding laddder amid the screaming of alarm klaxons - the helmet goes on and seals tight, deadening the sharpness of that roar, then the noise is muted almost entirely as the cockpit seals and the ship's systems come alive. Soon, the graceful modern fighter is loose, power flooding to its shields and its triple-set of heavy lasers as Callax calls over the comms.
<< Black Nine here, entering formation. >> His tone is calm, but steel awaits beneath all that velvet. Then to the droid he calls, "Babo, darling? This is likely going to be the fight of our lives. Don't frag it up." The droid whistles in grudging reply, and then they're off to stare death in the face at full throttle.
At the middle of the ship, Chewie sits with his hands up and laced over the back of his head as he stares down with his big brown eyes towards the holoboard that Finn sits next to as well and the wookiee is waiting.
"Would you move already..." Chewie growls softly knowing the human likes to take his time as if it will actually help him defeat the wookiee.
The warning lights start to go off and Chewie stands up before Finn starts to take his move allowing the human to do what he will, the wookiee is curious as to what's going on and steps down the hall to the cockpit and from the view port backwards Chewie's growling complaint can be felt through the hull and by all within. This is bad.
Chewie's fingers dance across the control panels, flipping the toggles and firing the sublight engines of the Falcon to full burn. The ship lurches with purpose as Chewie slips on his headset and reports in with a growl.
Since reconnecting with Rey, Finn has spent more and more time aboard the Falcon. In truth, he's taken up bunking in the crew quarters and helping out with repairs, much to a certain grumpy wookiee's chagrin. There was a strange pull towards the old ship back when they first sought shelter aboard it, and he'd come to feel at home there - or maybe that was just the people who lived there with him?
"Wait," Finn says indignantly, pointing at the holographic pieces on the board, "I thought I was big arms guy? I'm purple worm with legs guy? This is - "
When the alarm sounds, Finn is on his feet almost instantly. He's already on his way to the corridor, leaving the board behind as he leaps to the ladder and clambers up into the dorsal turret. He frowns - it's been a while since he faced the might of the First Order in open battle, and he wasn't looking forward to it.
As it so happens Rey was precisely where she needed to be. In the upper turret well of the Falcon. Although she's reclined sideways in the seat with her booted feet up upon one of the bulkheads and a pile of books resting beside her. One in her lap, opened and her eyes upon it as she reads the contents of its pages, or tries to... She has a translation journal beside her that she uses to help understand the ancient text.
When the emergency unfolds, Rey sits up. She sets her things aside and reaches for the headset to put it on. <<"I'm here.">> She says into it. With a heavy sigh her eyes close as she focuses on the feelings around here, as well as all the voices over the comms...
A black TIE fighter much shorter and more knifelike than the rest rockets out of the belly of the Finalizer with a distinctive scream. At the controls sits a man in black, the long scar on his face standing out starkly against his pale skin.
<"Follow my lead,"> he orders in a flat, sober tone to the TIE/sf fighters that flank him. <"There will be no escape this time."> The Silencer soars up around the side of the Finalizer, twisting like a corkscrew around the Destroyer, ripping past the control tower as the Supreme Leader gets his bearings, watching his scanners and reaching out into the space ahead through his connection to the Force. <"I know you were in a hurry to get back,"> he remarks to Oran over the comms. <"They're here. All of them.">
The ominous bulk of the Supremacy enters maximum weapons range of the Resistance fleet, and takes the first of many ranging shots with it's forward turbolaser batteries. The Resistance scramble has put all of their thirty-eight fighter craft in the void within minutes, in an impressive display of rapid response, yet even the first vanguard of First Order fighters outnumbers them three-fold, with many more squadrons still deploying.
On the ground, the first and smallest of the Resistance personnel transports launch from Rori as soon as they hit capacity, while the larger transports continue to be filled. The light anti aircraft turrets hum to life, swiveling toward the vector long range sensors indicate will soon be occupied by strafing TIEs. Among the last of Outpost personnel still working rather than fleeing are the crucial officers in the command tower where Connix continues to direct the desperate evacuation. The sensor officer reports, "Supremacy has opened fire on the fleet, all fighter squadrons reporting engaged, two TIE squadrons inbound to our position-" The sensor officer interrupts, staring at the comm terminal, puzzled. "Captain- Captain Connix! I'm receiving a narrow beam transmission from.. the enemy Destroyer?" At the Intel station, Astro calls, "Decoding, now- Captain, it.. appears to be the encryption sequence they're using to lock down the Warhammer; do I-" Faced with such a suspicious source of information, weighed against the danger facing the Fleet, Connix cuts off the Intel agent to immediately order, "Use it!"
<<Black Squadron, we're defending our Cap ships to hold out as long as we can. Red squadron, engage those heading for Rori. Blue Squadron remain around our weapon and intercept anything that gets in range. Green squadron, reinforce blue. Gold Squadron if anything gets near the weapon, blow it the hell up. Let's go people! We only get one shot at this, let's make it count!">> Poe says as he brilliantly misses the first of the TIE squadrons screaming to intercept their fleet. Poe comes about, weaving and twisting.
Leia swings the Noble into the landing birth of the hanger of the Warhammer and rushes back towards the ramp. The trip to the Bridge is rushed, "Why aren't we firing?" Eyes turn, staring... someone explains and the General frowns. "Alright... then we do this the old fashioned way." Bowing her head, motioning for people to man the weapons, she throws off her cloak and settles onto it, legs folding up beneath her as she sits atop it.
Centering herself in the Force, she reaches out towards her Pilots. Her presence is palpable, like a conductor orchestrating a symphany, linking them together in a web of cohesion, soothing concerns and fears, giving them purpose and direction.
If there was sound in space, Miri's fighter would be screaming along to defend the capital ships. She jukes and rolls dizzyingly scoring a hit on one of Alpha Squadron's TIEs. She growls under her breath.
Lofty links up with the massed Resistance fighter screen in his rickety skipray blastboat. "Stebbs, get on turret!" The Sullustan co-pilot climbs up into the topside laser turret controller and fires up the Senko Systems 5000x2 "Tru-Lok" laser cannon. Lofty himself flips the switch to rotate the ship's fins to atmosphere mode and his triple Mendarn Arms Dar-2 ion cannons complete their power-up sequence. "Krak'jya going to protect transports!" Since his fighter is an atmospheric fighter, he dives toward Rori, moving to engage the two squadrons of TIE/fo fighters who are entering Rori's stratosphere for a transport hunt. Laser and ion blasts erupt from the weapons on the gunship, but Epsilon Squadron's TIE fighters are missed completely as they proceed to the swamp moon of Rori.
Kisaiya had angled herself toward the larger groups, and where the Resistance was merging with the First Order ships. But, seeing as there was a group of fighters heading in their direction (Rori) Kisa decided that looked better. "Wyvern, looks like there's some coming this way anyway. And shush you, yes, I've been in space brawls." She orients the ship at a bit of an odd angle again but this one definitely for a merger. A little tilt of her head and a squeeze to send some of the E-wings lasers down range.
"Woo!" She grins, watching as one of the lasers slams into a tie, sending a flash along it to signify that its shields took a solid hit. "Let's clean some uh, yeah?"
The sheer number of TIEs coming off the Star Destroyers has Lintra's adrenaline racing. On Poe's lead she rolls out from the tight formation heading straight for the TIE's focusing on the Res capital ships. Whatever is going on in the Hammer has them hampered making protecting their ships a priority.
"You ready, Fiver?" She calls over internal coms. After touching the white scarf knotted at her neck, she goes into a roll targeting screen bracketing the second in the TIE squadron to come into range. A burst of lasers exchanged leaves the TIE with its shields flaring trouble.
<<Copy,>> is Sar's response to Poe, throttling forward and entering the fray. Sometimes, in an space battle, it's hard to find a target. This is not one of those times. An embarassment of riches. What a TIE-m to be alive.
<<Breaking off to defend the Renegade,>> Sar informs, settling the X-Wing in behind an enemy TIE that's currently dancing around the capital ship's defensive fire, Sar presses down on the firing nubs and lets plasma fly. A few bolts find purchase and the TIE's shields flicker.
As a good portion of Black Squadron goes after Alpha Kare notes Sar splitting away. <<"On your tail Black Three. I am going with you, Black Four out.">> She settles in alongside him and punches the speed ahead to get in along the TIE and strafe over top of her target to punch direct hits from the red lasers that exit her foils. She grins and nods her head as she levels out and whips back around quickly to keep her target in sight.
<"Black Four. Punched a hole through its shields, staying with target.>>
Merek looks to the targeting computer while he notices that Kare has managed to take the shield away from Delta 1. He then swings an ion cannon to fire on its flight path while the energy takes to the hull of the TIE, shimmering with light while it begins to shift away into space.
In Black 10, Zan's eyes have gone wide. This is the biggest battle she's seen. The influence of the general and the commands of Poe give her the peace of mind to remember to take a moment, reaching for the force for a brief moment of enhancement. And then she throttles the A wing up, letting the zippy little fighter roar forward as she tails after the X wings, catching up quick. She gets a chance to fire, and takes it, peppering the laser fire at one of the alpha squad tie's and watching as they dodge her fire. She hits that afterburn to zip around and come for another pass.
Kae noddles < Right with ya!> She calls out as she accelerates to full throttle right on Kisa's wing... < Yer faster, so Imma split off a bit and stuff! Use that speed>
Kae then sees Kisa hit <Ooh nice hit!> She calls, and then Kae rolls her fighter right, barrelrolling the thing to clear Kisa from her sights, before she grins and pulls the trigger on her flight stick. Suddenly the guns on Wyvern light up and out jumps a double pulsing stream of laser fire, as the small hyper-fighter's guns make a dull 'BRRRRT' noise, this heard probably by Kisa as the weapons on the wyvern discharge.
The stream of red laser fire drifts across the Tie Kisa hit, chewing through what's left of its shields and across the two ion engines of the fighter, turning them both black.. < OOooh that one's down! C'mon, lets go get more!> She calls to Kisa.
Kylo had commed, 'they're here, all of them,' and Oran's voice is dry in tone as he comms back, <"Not for long."> The Finalizer continues to disgorge TIE squadrons like hideous insects, and the Star Destroyer's turbolasers punch deadly blood-red bolts toward craft attempting to flee. <"Disable the anti-aircraft turrets and destroy the civilian craft,"> the Knight comms to the TIEs torturing the planet of his recent incarceration. To the bridge crew, "Fire on the tanker, I don't want that asset leaving this system in one piece. Wars are won and lost in fuel reserves, are they not?"
The gunners comply, obligingly, and the Free Blazer, a CEC Refueling Tanker, explodes in a final blaze.
<<On your tail Sunshine.>> Karas says as he hits a switch and the T-85's S-Foils moves into attack position. Pouring power into the engines, Black 6 rockets forward into the malestrom. Weaving through turbolaser shots and enemy TIE's, Black 6 see's a an enemy TIE moving across his space and the targeting computer of the T-85 locks on to it. Adjusting the stick and turning the snub fighter, Black 6 laser cannons fire but only doing a grazing shot to the enemy TIE.
It's a subtle thing, the effect that the General's meditation has; already in the zone, stress chemicals coursing through his body, Callax's vision is fixed upon the targets that seem to come out of the giant enemy spacecraft like clouds of ravening locusts. Everything just seems...sharper in the moment. His already engineered senses. His hands, steadier and faster as he moves the fighter's stick. And yet, instead of the usual bloodthirstiness that seethes beneath his patina of calm, a real sense of serenity leaks in to mix with darker waters that usually fill him.
"Look to the shields," Callax instructs Babo over the local circuit, glancing to the charge gauges or the guns as he dives into position behind one of the TIEs swarming the /Warhammer/. "No, darling," he hisses between clenched teeth. "No parties today." By all that's holy, if there won't be cake and iced cream served when this battle's over on his side, it sure as hell won't be served on theirs if he can help it.
But this calm is new to him, a different energy. He overcompensates, and due to this ends up firing wide enough that his target can spiral around the triple-set of bright red lances. Callax draws a deep breath, trying to will the resulting anger away that rises inside of him, to make room for this new focus.
Chewie throws the throttle to full on the sublights after he swings the enormous rear end of the falcon around and guns it. He's going to race the swarm of ties to get between them and the much more easily attackable transport ships. This is the job of a hero and he's going to make sure the First Order remembers the legend that is the Millennium Falcon. The ship that haunted the Empire still lives and fights for those seeking freedom and justice.
<<"They're not playing around,">> Finn announces as he grabs the headset from it's place dangling off the turret's controls and tugs it down onto his head, <<"I sure hope you fly as good as you play that little holographic monster game, Chewie!">>
That said, he leans back a little and turns his head to call out over his shoulder to Rey: "Let's go get 'em!"
As the first wave of enemy ships come into range, Finn hauls back on the controls and begins to fire the quad turret in their direction. Despite all his enthusiasm, they go well wide of the agile little fighters.
With the Falcon flying fast and hot, Rey warms the turret up and she glances over her shoulder to see Finn settling into his seat down the turret tunnel from her. "Here we go!" She shouts down to him, even offering a big thumbs up before she spins back around in her seat and places both of her hands onto the turret controls when the red and gold display screen comes up with its viable target information.
Outside of the ship, Rey watches the clouds of Rori zip by, and when the new sensor dish picks up an incoming fighter she waits for it to cross the plain of her turret and then squeezes on the firing triggers!
When the TIE zips past the Falcon its splashed across its shields by laser fire from Rey's turret! <"That woke them up, I bet! Try to focus fire on the same target, Finn! We'll tear them down one by one if needs be!">
The Silencer spirals down around the side of the Finalizer as Kylo decides on a target, veering away from the main capship fight and towards the TIEs that are engaging the defenders near Rori, their success apparently attracting his attention. The engines scream with fury as the fighter slices through space, coming in hot on the tail of the Wyvern, and the four heavy laser cannons mounted on the tips of its knifelike wings come to life with a burst of hammering green bolts that go lancing out towards the ship's backside, ultimately causing no real damage to the other ship.
A flash of light is all there is given to represent the arrival of the Raider Corvette 'Ferrata', but it doesn't stay inactive at all. Throttled to a bracing speed, the Corvette is all thrusters with one target in mind: the Warhammer. And it isn't alone.
Breaching from the loading bay of the Corvette are six new First Order TIE Bomber Black's. Within an instant, they're in a flanking orbit around the Corvette, and burning alongside it. While the Bombers have their weapons readied, the Ferrata is strangely shunting all of its power to shields and thrusters, with no seemingly readied weapons.
"Transmit our intentions to the Supreme Leader and the Knights--Pryde wants us onboard that firing platform and ripping it's heart out," Bryce raises an eyebrow as solid contact is made on their port side, draining shields. "Get us onboard that platform, Captain," Bryce says, before he reaches out. There's a flare that fires up in the Force to those sensitive. Something was happening.
In the Beacon Outpost command tower, Special Agent Astro is furiously sorting through reams of encryption, looking to unlock the First Ordera??s unexpected methods. Connix hovers over the slicer's shoulder until the instant Silver has done it, promptly calling, <<Now!>>
No sooner does the weapon control officer of the *Supremacy* voice to General Pryde that a turbolaser firing solution has been established, and they are standing by for the order, than the sensors show a surge in power from the supposedly harmless *Warhammer*. Aboard the rebel light cruiser, by contrast, the desperate crew stands less on formality. The instant fire control is restored, the commander is screaming, "SHOOT IT, SHOOT IT RIGHT NOW, FIRE EVERYTHING."
And for the second time, the Naboo System stands witness to the Acolyte Cannon, as an emerald glow coalesces around the superlaser emitter, before a blinding, concussive blast lances out, rattling every canopy for ten kilometers on either side of its path toward the First Order flagship.
<<THERE we go, baby!>> Ektor crows at the sight, as he guides the light bomber in between TIE fire.
Poe Dameron is on his second approach, having to spin, literally, to avoid being smashed by the fire of three pursuers. "We're in the middle of it now, buddy. Just.. hang on." Black Leader flies through the fleet, twisting up and away, and crossing another of the Alpha squadron as he appears on the other side of the Bunkerbuster, Yelsik's Valor. Red lances discharge from the ends of his ship's cannons and the TIE is obliterated and passed over in a flash of red contrails and expanding fire from the explosion. <<"Splash one,">> barks Poe, who turns his head to peer out the canopy.
The overwhelming power of the cannon comes to life then and he has to look away. "Yeah, yeah.. I see it!" Poe replies to BB-8. <<"Be advised, the Warhammer is on recharge. Valor and Survivor, put yourself between the Warhammer and ANY INCOMING VESSEL. If something comes within range, fire EVERYTHING you GOT!">> Poe is excited, the battle exhilarating and scary all at once. Black Leader, the fighter, streams overhead. <<"Call your targets, Black Squadron. Stay focused. We're NOT OUT OF THIS YET!">>
Miri continues to tangle with one of the Alpha TIEs. <<Two on one, huh? How'd they know the way I like it?">> she sasses over the coms in the middle of a death-defying roll. <<As long as I'm talking, I'm still alive,>> she thinks she's saying to herself, but broadcasts that as well. Henibi is hard at work on those shields, the little R4 unit doing her very best. When Poe tells them to call their targets, she sings out, <<Sorry, boss. Black Eight on Alpha 2.>>
Lofty's lower set of eyes (he has four) are drawn to that box of Adarian-style donuts on the nav shelf of the cockpit. He really wants one of those dianoga cream-filled donuts that he had been dreaming of all week, especially in this time of stress. But Princess Leia Organa-Solo's battle meditation soothes and concentrates his primitive Talz mind. He lines up a shot on one of the outer wingmen of Epsilon squadron in an attempt to protect the transports that will be pouring out of Beacon Outpost on Rori. His turret gunner Stebbs gibbers in Sullustese, "Mwaki! Ndaikia mugwi muraya! (Fire! Throw the long spear!)" Orange laser bursts and blue ion bolts erupt in staccato bursts from the gunship's weapons. The lasers go wide but the triple ion cannons hit, causing electrical interference to dance across the Epsilon TIE/fo's hull as shields begin to drop. <<We taking fire!>> he states over the comm frequency as three TIE/fos break off and pursue his starship.
"I /know/ you're slower." There's a dramatic sigh, and Kisa watches her sister finish off the TIE she was going after. A thin-press of her lips as she is in the midst of banking her ship, a pull back to bring it in a sort of arc. A couple of the TIEs line up on her, Lil making noises as her mouth purses, but she cants and rolls before coming back up to avoid their laser.
Just then she sees some ship whiz by -- taking a shot at her sister -- but she was already setting sights toward the TIEs going after the people fleeing from Rori.
"Cat to Wyvern, call if you neeeed meeee." Kisa adds, giving another half-spin of the E-wing as she lines up on the next TIE. Several shots lance out from the transport Lofty is on, hitting it and sending out that splay of energy showing they took damage.
A little to the left... A bit more.
A slight twist...
And Kisa squeezed the trigger, the heavy lasers hitting the TIE, one tearing off a panel and the other destroying the engine. "WOO!"
<<Got you Black 6> the grin can be heard in Lintra's voice through the Gs pulling on the T-85 as they move into a high speed back loop on their second run. Her X-Wing vectors to come back firing at the TIE with damaged shields. <Black Five on Alpha 2> The T-85 reengages on that comeback loop with Alpha Two only to have a second on her port side.
The cockpit shudders as her new adversary lights her shields up with TIE laser green. "Yeah, drek. Not my favorite color." Shields at half she pulls back on the yoke. "Fiver, sweetie, repair us!"
The world turns red around them and the T-85 does a jig under the surge of energy coming from the Warhammer. "I say goooo, baby."
"Alright..." Sar remarks to himself as he stares out the side of his rattling canopy. He never did like the idea of having that thing around, but...he can't exactly deny its effectiveness. "Huh," he utters, before turning his eyes back to the fight, just barely pulling out of the way of a duo of laser bursts.
<<Splash one,>> Sar says, his and Kare's quarry slowing down and becoming far too easy of a target. The TIE's magazine is hit and the little bird goes up in a ball of fire. <<Whaddya see, Green 4?>> he asks, slowing down and getting onto her wing.
Kare is inbound on her target when it suddenly is smashed and goes dead from an ionized hit. She turns sharply and brings her X-Wing around upon her next Delta target. Even as she starts to line up she manages to roll out of the way of the first set of lasers that seer across her canopy and out of sight before the next volley hits her on her portside. The X-wing is jostled and she is thrown about her cockpit, making her shot a on but not where it needs to be as she lets loose. <<"Black three, got a friend on my tail. Little help if you can.">> She comes about quickly, pulling hard after that glancing blow on her target. Unfortunately Rev does nothing for Black Four, whirring and blipping his annoyance as he looses hold of the attachement.
When Sar comes upon her wing she tilts her head and looks over at him. <<"Got a new target, lets clean up and then take out the one on my tail.">>
Merek takes to that railing next to his position while he feels the ship begin to shift when Warhammer strikes the Supremacy. He does try to fire on a TIE, but the fact he's still positioning the target computer as well as the pilot maneuvering away, the ion cannons begin firing into space. He watches as the Free Blazer gets blasted up into pieces, memories coming to him of his time on it, fighting along with the gunners within. He meditates, taking in the way the Force comes to them all from Leia. "Not until all the civilian and non-combatant people are free." He then lifts up his voice enough that it can even be heard in the comlink from the front. <<"FOR THE NEW REPUBLIC!">>
Zan knows there's return fire, but none of it is anywhere close to her, this time. At least according to her sensors and the twitchiness in the back of her head. The A wing is fast and agile, and Zan is a decent pilot. She spins her fighter, dips down, and then swoops in at a target in her sights, firing at alpha 2. << Alpha two splash,>> she reports as Poe is asking. << Should we be jamming, Major? >> That is hopefully still encrypted, cause Zan's gonna be a heck of a target if not. Kae blinks and out of the corner of her eyes sees movement coming at her! Then she sees green bolts and instantly Kae is snapping her fighter up and over. The small vessel maneuvers very much unlike most snubs as the vessel's thrust vectored engines swivel around causing the fighter to go into a very very violent fluttering roll that spins her out of the path of the Leader of the First order's shots...
Kae quickly catches her roll and is pulling up, rolling another way and reversing that violent motion, Kisa can probably hear her do the whole 'hic' maneuver, ie she's trying to keep blood in her head as her maneuvering is too much for the fighter's inertial dampners...
After slipping the first two volleys of fire, she pulls up again, rolling sidways and litterally, the fighter is slowing and cartwheeling over the attacking epsilon fighter, the Wyvern bringing its nose to bear on the oncoming Tie, before Kae cuts loose with a burst from her fighter's weapons, again that tell-tale BRRRRT can be felt/heard as a staggered solid line of weapon energy lances out of the ends of her wings as those rapid fire lasers go to work, nearly ripping the shields off the Tie in one fell swoop.
As Kae gathers her fighter back under control, she throttles again to max, now on jinking and rolling in the giant furball surrounding the evacuating indie ships...
< Didja see what that first ship was? I dunno if I've seen those before up close! It's a Silencer type ship! I've only ever heard about em!> She calls out, blinking < Keep yer eyes out for it, it only barely shows up on my sensors! Yer gonna have to keep up with visual scanning on this one sis!>
Ferrata's intentions come through to Finalizer, and the Knight on bridge there draws in a breath, and slowly exhales it back out before engaging comms himself. <"Ferrata, this is Finalizer,"> Oran comms, <"Whatever you are attempting with that boarding action, I suggest you accomplish it quickly. We cannot and will not delay or diminish our attack on Warhammer for your action or exfil; there is inherent risk involved."> A light pause is followed by, <"I trust this will be no impediment for an individual of your capabilities.">
He might have been about to add more, or issue further directions to the Finalizer's gunners regarding Rori's fleeing targets, when suddenly all holy hell breaks loose, and BOOM, the Warhammer LIGHTS UP, to the clear and obvious detriment of the Supremacy. BOOM!
Oran is a difficult person to surprise. But with his face briefly lit by fire from the flagship, visible in monitors and the viewports, he is for a moment... extremely surprised.
It doesn't last long. "We have ten minutes," the Knight snaps to the Finalizer's crew. "Leave Rori and this pointless chattel, fire on the Warhammer NOW and BLOW THAT BLOODY CANNON to every ONE of its CONSTITUENT ATOMS!"
Karas smiles as he hears Tallie, <<Copy that.>> he says to her as he forms up on Black 5's wing. The T-85 follows Black 5, Karas feels his fighter shudder as the Warhammer fires. He didn't like large powerful weapons like this, but honestly he agreed with General Organa, they had to change up their tactics when it came to fighting back. His mind focuses back onto the fight.
He sees Alpha-3 was following Alpha-2, "Good, there you are." As Black 5 fires, he rolls right giving him and Black 5 room to fight. Pressing the trigger down, he watches as his lasers hit their target, "Not good enough." he says more to himself, he gets a beep from Spark as he sees the shield power increase, "Thank you Spark, lets get them back up fully." he says to his droid. <<Sunshine, I'm still on your tail our dancing partners are stickign together, lets end them and see who else we want to dance with.>> he calls to Tallie.
The falcon is a fairly large target and with Chewie purposefully making it a target, the things shields are put into over time as the laser fire from a few Ties strike the ship and the freighter takes a rocking as the machine saves a transport from getting blasted.
Chewie roars at the astromech to do something to save their lives and quickly and then roars into the comms that the Falcon is taking fire and why can't Finn hit the TIEs before they hit them.
A sharp turn puts some G's onto the crew inside and Chewies trigger finger squeezes off a concussion missile a moment before he can really get the aim down and it goes wide of the TIE he was aiming at, hoping his crew can do better than he just did.
Finn glances back over his shoulder as Rey calls out instructions, nodding his head and momentarily flexing his fingers on the turret controls. It is then that the Falcon shudders under the assault from the TIE cannons, and he steadies himself against the rumbling that cascades through the ship.
Setting his sights on the same TIE that Rey had fired at, he bodily draws the turret to one side and unleashes a volley of laser fire towards it. He pumps a fist in the air as he clips it, watching the quad laser fire rip through the hull and prompt it to break away.
He spares a glance towards the Star Destroyer Finalizer that was, at one point, his home and momentarily lets the muzzle of the turret dip.
Rey's upper turret well is lit up by the emerald blast from the Warhammer. She hadn't seen it fire since their first fight in the Naboo entry mission quite some time ago, but she'll always know that sight after that same mission. It was imprinted in her mind and spirit.
It phases her for a second, but she shakes it away, not sure of what it fired at as she can't see its target from the angle that the Falcon is at. She twists in the turret seat and refocuses back on her target. When it zips by again she squeezes the trigger on the Falcon's turrets and sends more red lasers after it!
<<"Chewie, if we take too much damage we'll have to fall back. I've set the Navi-Computer to the Fleet's emergency location. Its primed and ready to go, just in case!">>
Rey glances to the side as she notes the display showing the Falcon's shield status. "Hold together... stay with us." She softly encourages the ship she's come to rely upon so greatly.
The Silencer remains doggedly on the Wyvern's tail, but the four heavy laser cannons are as of yet ineffectual against the other ship, but Kylo continues to stay on its tail, waiting for an opportunity and growing more frustrated and angry the longer time passes and the presence of General Organa's meditation is still manifest in the Force.
Bryce smirks some, as Oran's words fill his ear. "Organa's on that ship. She needs to be neutralized. She won't allow that ship to be destroyed while she breathes and there's a chance," Bryce says firmly. His focus is on the battle around them, disrupting their ability to track the ship. "Hail Organa. Tell her if the Ferrata is destroyed, Luke's saber burns with it. If she wants it, she can take it from me herself, in person," Bryce says.
Callax was never there for the first firing of the Acolyte Cannon, though word of it had circulated at some point. Nor did he see the death of Hosnian Prime. But here, this, he sees: the firing of the cannon, the mighty beam of energy that lances forth and pierces the hull of the /Supremacy/, the fracturing of its mighty hull. In a flash of light and the thunderclap of concussive force, the great ship, the greatest likely ever to have existed in the last fifty thousand years, is rent into pieces. It's the single greatest scene of brutality that Callax believes that he will ever see - and for just a moment, his attention is diverted.
But only just a moment.
The death of the great ship swells his heart, and the strange focus that floods him thanks to the distant General's meditations brings him to redouble his efforts - and run down one of the TIE fighters currently menacing the /Warhammer/. Firing his fighter's mighty cannons, a triple dose of brilliant red lances streak toward his target, meeting in a glowing flare of light. There's barely anything left but wreckage.
<< Splash one, >> Callax recites like a litany, the afterflash of the /Supremacy/'s doom only now fading from his eyes. << Acquiring new target. >>
Another RSD streaks into realspace, then another. The looming capital ships continue to arrive, bracketing the Jade moon of Rori, and the various small ships seeking safety. Turbolaser fire continues to flood the void, as the efforts of the defenders are not enough to stop everything: a volley of concussion missiles slam into the Warhammer, while the pitiless cannons of Zeta squadron rip apart a rebel medium transport, sending debris crumbling back down to Rori, burning up in a shower of luminous durasteel. The battered Raider corvette still lurches toward the Calamari light cruiser at the center of the Resistance formation. Three transports are away, six still struggle upnout of the gravity well.
Poe Dameron winces when all the fire comes in, hitting their fleet. They were getting hammered and the evacuation? He had no idea. They would not be able to hold much longer.
Poe's craft is led through a slow spiral, passing by a pair of fighters and engaging a third while green lances spit by his own craft, shading Poe in their hue as they harmlessly sailed into the void. Flipping the switch to their encrypted channel, Poe addressed the Resistance.
<<"It's time we begin to make our exit of Naboo. Our fleet cannot withstand firepower of this magnitude. BB-8 is issuing an encrypted Nav location. Program it in your nav computers. Break. Break.">> Poe takes a deep breath.
<<"Valor. Come about. Arm your payload and open a vector for our escape. Put every bit of power you have into your shields and find us a path through.">>
<<"If the way opens, Everyone will follow me out.">>
Poe engages a TIE, hammering it hard and lowering its shields. Keeping to his own orders, he calls it out. <<"Alpha five is blinking, shields low!">> "BB-8, buddy, send the coordinates."
Miri swears loudly over the coms as her shields are hit again. <<Copy, Black Leader. Henibi, get ready to jump>>
"I aya magiuka! (Here they come)" Stebbs exclaims over the comms. Three TIEs are still on Lofty's tail. The lead fighter fires a very close volley but the green laser blasts slide by the blastboat. As they draw closer to Rori's atmosphere, the Skipray blastboat begins to have a greater advantage because of its maneuverability in atmospheric flight, while the TIE fighters become more sluggish. <<Coming around>> Lofty warbles over the comm frequency, bringing his triple Dar-2 ion cannons to bear on another TIE/fo from Epsilon Squadron. In vertical flight configuration the cannons are almost in a straight line, with one on the top fin, another on the nose, and the third on the bottom stabilizing fin. A vertical triplet of three ion blasts is fired in quick succession. The Epsilon TIE's shields collapse under the ion blasts. Lofty's R2 warbles something in binary about new escape coordinates, causing him to lean hard on the flight yoke with his paws and bring the Krak'jya back out of Rori's atmosphere, preparing to flee. Hopefully the transports got out.
"What?" Kisa turns her head, trying to give a glance back toward her sister while keeping an eye on the sensors. She turns just in time to see her sister move out of the way of another volley of shots. "Silencer? What in the Hells is that, Wyvern?" Her mouth pulls into another thin line and she looks back toward where she's angled. A push on the rudder to slide to the side with a pull up and over to roll her up onto a wing. She would be scratching at her chin right now, if it wasn't for the fact that this was a heck of a furball.
"Wyvern, Cat, want some help with that blippy-ship?" Kisa was still angled in on another one of course. The shots from the TIEs forced her to jerk the E-wing up and kick it over. The TIE she was going after wasn't where she expected it, but she did spot one that was going after the civilian Transports.
It was a high angle, and she let out a string of heavy laser blasts at her target but -- it was too much of a deflection, and the pilot seemed to guess she was about to shoot. The shot sizzling passed.
"Tone it down, Fiver." Lintra says patiently with just a hint of menace in her voice. "We are just hanging on to a thread of a shield here. Do what you can, depending on you. And yes, I see them. How many destroyers in-system now?"
In the distance the Supremacy reigns no longer supreme, explosions still rocking the great destroyer's structure as lifeboats arc out into space. Two TIEs harry them but she drops out of their plane of fire, pulling back hard on the yoke tipping the T-85 upright into a flip to come back at them. Alpha 5 is hit hard, lit orange on her status tracker.
Poe's voice calls her back to real situational awareness. Throttling back on her disappointment, she replies neutrally, <<Copy that, Black Leader, inputting now.">>
<<Black 4, ditch that tail and follow me,>> Sar comms to his wingman, pulling hard to the side and kicking in the afterburner to cut a b-line towards the transports and the TIEs giving them hell.
Slipping narrowly out of the way of several incoming blasts, Sar slips in behind an enemy fighter and lets loose a fusillade that all fly wide. <<You didn't see that, Black 4.>>
Kare is knocked out by a rather heated hit and Rev chirps loudly that shields are down. Her hands move over the controls quickly, "Get us back in shape, Rev. We got a jump to make soon," she says to the droid as her head comes up and she glances out her cockpit over towards her Sar. <"On you, Black three but we have to start getting our jump coordinates in.">
She turns her ship sharply and follows after, taking the same target as him and scoring a hit but nothing to stop the TIE. <"Saw what?"> She asks back at Sar, though her expression is somewhat dour with all that is happening. <"I will jump when you are ready, Black Three.">
Merek takes a moment to line up with the targeting computer, but as the battle meditation shifts away from them, he looks a bit distracted by it all. No matter what they do, it won't be a full success. The ion cannons then fire into space while he takes a moment to then look at another of the transports being blasted into a few pieces.
There's a heck of a lot going on, and poor Zan is rocked when she takes a hit. That's the first one ever for the young pilot. Her face blances and she cusses under her breath, taking a moment to get herself back together. She hears Poe, and when the coords are sent, she punches them in, but the moment gives her a chance to see something. Oh, hey. <<Black 10 Violet here. Laying down chaff in front of those missile Ties. >> Whatever they're called. Watch her go. She zips that fast little A wing around, under the fire, sliding left, jigging right, zigzagging through the fight to streak across the path of the fighters, dropping chaff as she goes. There she is! And there she was! As she doesn't stick around, instead she is hopefully gone as quick as she was there. << Okay, that might be the scariest flying I've done so far,>> she mutters. Maybe she forgot to take her finger off the comm button for that.
Kae blinks and looks behind her, her fighter's sensors now seeing the Tie Silencer with cameras... < Yup Blippy ship, Cat start calcing hyperspace coords, I'm seeing them possibly about to jump out!> She says and tilts her head again to the right then well incoming fire! Kae jinks the Wyvern up, down, rolling once, as she dodges in and around tie-fire..
Then instead of staying on the craft she was shooting at suddenly those red dots for the Wyvern's engines kind of blink out, turning into red halos as the Wyvern goes full on Retro thrusters, suddenly shifting from zooming straight head to zooming straight back. Kisa can hear Kae grunt as the G-forces hurt yet again, and Kae is pitching the back of her fighter down, nose up, as she starts firing laser fire now at the Silencer, as she tries to walk the laser fire onto the fighter... As soon as the Wyvern's guns unleash a double torrent of laser fire, Kae throttles the fighter back to full forward throttle, trying to break to the right and maybe just maybe break line of sight on her. "Sarge, get those coords set, we're jumping here really soon!" the little BB unit in Kae's fighter beeps afirmative. "Send coords to Cat too!"
Oran's attentions are split between the viewscreens and various bridge monitors and datapads brought to his attention by crisply uniformed minions, but increasingly, the Knight's attention seems drawn to a certain pair of transponder codes that stand out in this fray. One in particular, hunted by the Silencer; the quarry of that pursuer will always draw attention. "FreiTek E-Wing Escort Starfighter 'Catastrophe,'" he reads, then hmms. "Prototype SW-19 Wyvern Fighter 'Wyvern'. Civilian transponders operating in aid of the Resistance. Make a note and send it to my personal records; it seems I have a call to make to my favorite bounty hunter in the near future." He smiles, just a hint. "And perhaps a personal visit to make to some citizens of the galaxy, thereafter."
Back to the big picture, and he spends a moment assessing the readouts of the Finalizer's weapons, shields; blinking red diagrams showing how many TIE fighters they've lost to the conflict. Blinking red TIEs. There are hundreds upon /hundreds/ of them, and yet... men and women in each, pilots, people. People for whom he is ultimately responsible. Blink, blink, blink....
It has a way of building tension, and switching to the reports of how well the gunners are doing is not cheering him up. One hand snaps out toward the nearest unfortunate officer, smashing the man's head against his console with an abrupt WHAP. "FIRE ON THE CRUISER," Oran yells at him. "What are you doing? How are you getting results like this, licking the controls? It's a MON CALAMARI CRUISER and it has an ENORMOUS CANNON ON IT and if you do not find it within yourself to locate it with your turrets I will FEED YOU YOUR TEETH."
Karas sees all of this, more of the RSDs keep coming in and now they are being routed. This was pissing him off, but Karas knew he couldn't let himself become too mad. It wouldn't help him, or the other Resistance members. He has a job to do and as him and Alpha-3 spar, Black 6 climbs and rolls evading shots, though the last volley, Karas was able to keep on Alpha-3, though as he fires again he isn't able to get a cleaner shot.
Hearing Black Leader call for them to get the hell out of dodge, <<Copy that Black Lead.>> he calls into his comms. Once Spark received the coordinates, Spark reads the encryptions and quickly Karas puts them into his navi-computer. <<Come on Sunshine, time to get kriff out of here.>> he says. He is pissed, but for now they needed to regroup and go from there. He hopes they will figure this out.
The added focus that Callax had felt now fades, but it leaves him now in possession of something like it. His movements are precise and mechanical as he flies Black Nine through space, targeting yet another of the fighters targeting the /Warhammer/. Another pair of heavy lasers connect, obliterating this one too, and snuffing yet another light from Oran's threatboard. << Splash another one, >> he drones calmly. << Acquiring target, but ready to follow you out, Leader. >>
Chewie is pulling a hard spin in the ship with R2 next to him trying to flair the shields to something a bit more substatial than the whimpy 20 percent they were at moments before. The wookiee roars deeply as he keeps the spin going and the missile tone sounds so Chewie fires another shot that skims between the solar panels of the TIE before them and he groans loudly at the second miss of the battle.
<<"This is going bad,">> Finn announces into the headset, as though the rest of the crew didn't know that already, <<"How's the hyperdrive, Artoo? Good to go?">>
Though he doesn't say it out loud, there's a certain nervous energy in his voice. The hyperdrive on the Falcon may be wondrously fast, but it has a bad habit of failing at the worst possible moment. As he wheels the turret around, blasting that pesky TIE out of the sky, he reaches up to pat his hand on the top of the turret console.
"C'mon," he whispers to the ship around him, shutting down the feed from the com so he isn't overheard, "This is where you do your magic."
Rey spins this way and that way in the turret chair as she tracks a target zipping by. She adjusts for the one that Finn and Lofty had just fired upon and when it sweeps past the top of the Falcon she's got the quad lasers primed and waiting for it.
The quad cannons pop into action and begin unloading super charged blasts at the TIE's central body. *SHUGH SHUGH SHUGH SHUGH!!!!*
The First Order TIE takes thue blasts from the quad cannon and X BURSTS INTO PIECES! X
<"One more down! Good flying, Chewie! Good shooting, Finn! Lets keep at them!"> She shouts over the ship comms.
The Wyvern swoops up over the Silencer in a sudden reversal, and Kylo latches on tightly to the controls of the prototype TIE and slams them to the rear in the same instant that the other fighter passes over him. As lasers begin to spit out from the Wyvern, the TIE cuts through the space in front of it, spinning like a top and bypassing the blasts with ease.
The scream of the engines cuts almost entirely as Kylo drops the Silencer right back into place behind the Wyvern, a deep frown on his face as he presses the red button to fire all four heavy laser cannons once again, but again he's unable to land a hit on the maneuverable craft.
"The Cavalry is arriving," Bryce says to himself, thoughtfully. "Our business with Leia will have to wait until another time," he adds, after the fact, before waving an arm dismissively. "Get us to a safer range and get our systems back online."
<<"You thought you could keep me away, did you... with you little surprise attack.">> Comes the voice and BLARING music of Elrych Cometburn over the Black Squadrons comms. <<"But you out to know that I'd find my way somehow.">> Who the hell was the corellian talking to? Who knew. Blasing from the Valor and out of the dropping hailstorm of bombs comes the sleek form of another of Black Squadrons T-85s. <<"Black 12 in the fight...">> The red engines glare as the pilot bring his craft to full speed seemingly running right into a crap ton of TIEs.
Ektor grimaces at the squawks and warbles of R2-G13, "Merek, will you tell the droid that if she just keeps giving bad news, I'm not gonna listen no more?" A curse as he sees a second transport torn apart by TIEs as Poe orders the fighting dash in the Valor's wake. << I hear you, Pretty Boy- Gonna pick a fight on the way though..>> His Gunner gets no warning before the Y-wing veers sharply off target, to race through the flock of Zeta squadron, nacelles and cannons glowing, taking out one of the angry fighter craft that swarm the ponderous Resistance transports.
Heavy cannonades pound the remaining rebel capital ships, visible damage wracking the Warhammer as its shields fail under the sustained bombardment. Damage control aboard the Renegade are also stretched as they big ships bank slowly to try and follow the Valor as that Bunkerbuster seeks to blaze a corridor through the closing noose of Resurgent class Destroyers on the strength of its namesake bomb pylons. The detonation of those fission devices is enough to force one Destroyer to alter course, opening that precious and temporary window for the besieged Resistance to flee, though it comes at its own cost as the bold corvette is destroyed outright by a direct hit.
But they still need to make that dash, and the withering firepower of the massed First Order makes such odds seem long indeed. A final salvo ends the Warhammer in a slow series of cascading explosions, striking a terrible blow at hope. And then.. the firing stops. Holoemitters in every craft and every terminal flicker to life with an aged, hooded image many of those alive had never before seen, yet still knew:
<<"Denizens of the galaxy. I return to you in a time of great need. Long have I waited for this moment. A moment to fix the errors of the past. A moment to once more spread peace and prosperity across the regions of our great galactic sphere.
Decades ago, the sinister agents of chaos found a way to hinder our Empire's reign. They acted upon foolish ideals of a better tomorrow without any remorse for stripping the galaxy of its safety.
At last the work of generations is complete. The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The day of the Sith is upon us!">>
Poe watches in defeat as the corvette named after the man who helped the Resistance get the cannon and was killed, is blown up securing the Resistance's exit out of this hell hole. The explosion from its payload was massive, and Poe angles his craft toward it, turning on his priority beacon.
<<"This is Commander Dameron. All craft on my beacon. Follow me through. This is OUR ONLY SHOT!">>
The X-Wing banks hard, twisting through the fire and emerging out the other end of the debris of the Resistance corvette. "Hang on, BB-8." Poe turns then, glancing back over his shoulder. <<"Punch it, people. Get out of here.">> He remains for the moment, watching to get a rough shipcount to ensure everyone who can make it, does. When the last ship is away, or at least the one Poe thinks is the last one, he reaches forward and pulls the lever. With the s-foils closed, Black Leader's engines streak into the void of space with a sudden flash of blue and glaring contrail of red.
The message that came across his screen was replayed on the flight.
As her hyperdrive is spinning up, Miri takes a potshot at the nearest TIE fighter. She misses. With one hand on the hyperdrive lever, she raises her free hand, flips the enemy fighter off. She transmits in the clear, <<YOU'RE ALL UGLY!>> and away she goes.
Lofty blazes his way through a few TIE fighters still too saucy to get out of the Resistance fleet's way. BRAP BRAP BRAP. He and his gunner hit nothing, but the TIE fighters move. His droid warbles and beeps to indicate the coordinates have been downloaded. His ugly patrol boat streaks out of realspace following Poe Dameron's lead. Once they are in hyperspace, Lofty leans back and has a delicious donut.
"Wyvern, Cat, Lil says you're send a present. Thank you." She saw the readout from her droid that she would be getting jump coordinates. She had noticed the other ships seeming to diverge, and while she was hoping that it was just a different strategy -- but she wasn't holding her breath either.
She jerked the stick over again, sweeping it around in a tight arc to bring it back toward her sister. But seeing that Kae still had that strange one on her she pulls her mouth off to the side and rudders over, it now being her turn to shoot at it. "Wyvern, Cat, I'll try to shake it off ya!" The thing was fuzzy on the sensors, meaning she had to kinda half-guess at it.
Kisa's mouth pulled off to the side and she slapped at the holocomm as it activated cutting it out except for the audio. That she ignored (as best she could) as she squeezed off some shots from her Heavy Lasers. But it was distracting enough that she saw the lasers sizzle by, missing handily. She continued accelerating along with her sister -- heading toward the escape vector that was sent to her droid via their encrypted channel.
"Bye-bye, Naboo. I'll miss you." Kisa sighed.
The world comes apart around them. The Warhammer dying before their eyes accompanied in its death throes by the Yelsik. The debris field filled with the outgassing of the explosions and shattered craft make the run out of the system dangerous but no more dangerous than staying.
A TIE comes straight at her, it is one of those moments of serendipity, he zigs and Lintra has him bracketed red in her targeting computer. She squeezes the trigger on the yoke and her lasers punch straight through the eye's canopy. <Splash.> She announces without enthusiasm.
<Copy that Black Leader on your 6> she maxes the T-85's engines contrail burning bright and follows Poe out of the battle zone to the unknown.
Merek is a bit distracted by the message on the HoloNet while he takes a moment to fire on the TIE. It manages to also evade while he takes a moment to look then to that droid when Ektor asks for him to speak to it. "Ya."
<<Copy that, Black 4,>> Sar says, pulling out of the furball and getting a lay of the land. Unfortunately, it's just into time to see most of their fleet torn apart. The Colonel swallows hard at the loss of their biggest hitters. But there's no time for mourning right now. Just survival.
Picking up the coordinates from Poe, Sar breathes a long, heavy breath and slides the levers forward, streaking off into the distance.
The call for all pilots to jump is heard and Kare does not leave Sar, no once. Sticking close to Black Three she is already double checking her coordinates and banks in hard around that spinning debris, rolling through the last bit to narrowly avoid a stray piece. She closes her foils, snapping them into place as she starts the sequence to jump.
As Black Three's engines engage for hyper, she does the same, ensured that her wingmate will meet her on the other side.
The call came, he watches as he sees the Warhammer take a devastating hit. Then the voice of the dead coming across all channels, "What the hell...!" he exclaims, his voice coming across the comms too. He was stunned, his parents told him about the Emperor of the Empire during their time. He was supposed to be dead.
His head swam, but Poe gets through to him, <<Copy that. Black 5, I'm on your wing.>> he calls to Tallie as he brings his fighter around hitting the switch to close the S-Foils of his fighter. Settling back against his seat. The coordinates were set and his fighter lurches into hyper-space.
Zan hears directions from black leader and she follows them. <<Copy, Black Leader. >> She's grumbling under her breath, not at all liking how outnumbered they are. There's a real tangible feeling in all this, and she's working to stay serene. So many lives lost and ships destroyed. And that voice! She's going to need some serious meditation time after this. Isn't he supposed to be dead? But - that sure didn't sound dead. Right now, she's holding to her calm, well mostly. She can't help but fire one more time when she spies a Tie that is in her range, but once that's done, she hits the throttle and accelerates her A wing following behind Poe and the rest of the ships, heading for that opening, and then hyper space.
Kae is dinking, ducking and that nimble fighter is now darting between shots from the Silencer, now having the Tie on her tail again. "He's good." she mutters to her self, Kae looking back over her shoulder as her BB well beeps at her... "Got it, On that vector bud..." She then calls out over their private channel to Cat... < Cat Jump it out! Gogogogogogo!> She calls out, and they're heading toward the escape vectyor before Kae calls out <Lets burn lines!> And she pulls back on the hyper drive levers. The small Space prototype's engines burn bright for a second then stars start to turn to white lines and then suddenly, Kae's hit... The shields on the Wyvern are ripped apart, followed by one of the engines going out... < Cat... Cat.... Jump, get out of here... I'll... Force be with you....> there's not much else as the sound of re-entry is heard over the coms, Kae's fighter is gone... A bit later there's a loud explosion over the comlink and nothing.
Perhaps ripples of Oran throwing people into consoles spread throughout the FO fleet, as gunning has really improved across the board. More and more TIEs blink out red, snuffed out one after another, and there's a tightness, an ache, that lives in threat boards and cost/benefit analysis reports and empty bunks repurposed to new recruits. Lockers dumped of their meager possessions. But there's a war on.
The Warhammer is finally lighting up in a satisfying way and Oran folds his arms, watching the destruction on data readouts and in real-time, assessing the progress and thinking ---
Thinking thoughts that scatter like frightened birds when the transmission comes in. "What in seven bloody hells," Oran stares, flicking switches without avail to figure out the source of this transmission. <"Are you hearing this?"> he comms to Kylo and Bryce, before just stopping, hands stilled on the controls.
"Sith?" the Knight echoes incredulously. "/Sith/?!"
Both hands lift to scrub tiredly at his face, then drop in time to see the Warhammer light up. That damn cannon, the one he failed to keep from leaving Hutt Space so long ago. Up in flames, finally. Sith, though. Sith.
A long, long pause lingers and then eventually his only comment is to look at the gunner with the telekinesis-console-induced nosebleed. "You keep your teeth this time," the Knight dryly remarks, and with that high praise, he turns and walks off the bridge.
The obliteration of the /Supremacy/ happened but minutes ago, and it was the most brutal act of naval devastation he had ever seen - but the sight of the /Warhammer/ being torn apart by the salvos of six different Star Destroyers, that quickly caps it. In that moment, with explosions everywhere and wreckage burning in space, the clarity from before twists into a spike of pure, burning rage. Targeting the nearest ship, he pours on more laser fire, as if hurling his rage through the void - and with the force of it, render another TIE fighter into flames and dust.
It is only as he flies through the cloud of residue that his ship's holoemitter goes off, and a minuature image of a past maniac appears hovering in midair. Callax stares in disbelief, for once struck speechless, at this...whatever this message is. Is it real? False? Psychological warfare? For a moment he is utterly struck dumb, only brought back to reality by Babo's urgent whistling. "Yes, I--okay, yes," Callax calls back in reponse, then speaks over the comms, his contralto voice still shocked to the core. << Black Nine, splashed target. Jumping out. >> The hyperdrive's motivator activates, and then there are but stars stretched into inifinity...and the eternal, hurtling blue of hyperspace. Callax is alone with what has just transpired, and he feels cold.
Rey was barely through the adrenaline of blowing up that last TIE Fighter and moving on to the next target when the holo-message begins to play inside of her headset. She doesn't see the imagery of his face, she only hears his voice. She knows who it is, she's heard his voice before...
From the outside of the Millennium Falcon the quad cannon on its top stops moving. Inside it of it, Rey stops in her turret chair. A strange sensation rolls through her. Her eyelashes flutter for a moment, her lips part and she takes in a shallow and stuttering breath as a sense of cold rushes across her.
When the voice ceases, Rey is left in a trance-like state. Flashes from outside of the turret viewport illuminate her and the gunnery well around her, but she remains motionless in her seat. She can hear the follow-up comm chatter, she can hear Poe's voice, and the voices of others, though none of it seems to entirely register within her.
Her skin crawls, her fingers suddenly feel cold as icicles on the controls of the turret's guns. <"Chewie!"> Rey calls out over the comms. <"Follow the others, get us out of here!"> She tears the headset off and spins around in her turret seat to grab her bag of Jedi texts, looping it over her shoulder she begins to descend the ladder back to the interior of the freighter.
Chewie's hands push the ship to aim in the basic direction required for the launch into hyperspace. Chewie leans over his shoulder and with the comsystem off, the wookiee roars into the ship's interior as a way to warn the crew to brace for the jump to hyperspace.
The wookiee's hand reaches up to the slide the hyperdrive engage lever. The wookiee looks over his shoulder towards the hallway of the Falcon and he roars once, loudly. The fear and concern in the furry creature's soul can be felt as he slams the hyperdrive on. It's time to go. Now.
"The Sith," Finn whispers to himself, staring at holoemitter in wide-eyed, stunned silence before he turns to call down the tunnel between the Falcon's turrets, "Rey, are you seeing this?!"
He taps the headset he wears, fumbling to put it in place before opening a channel to the cockpit: <<"Where is that message coming from - ">>
Then he listens to the feedback from around the fleet, the sound of people fleeing the inexorable might of the First Order. Resistance ships exploding in bursts of fire and twisted metal.
<<"Nevermind! You heard her! Punch it, Chewie!">>
He hauls back on the turret controls, firing a screed of laser fire at one of the nearby TIEs before the stars elongates around him and they disappear into hyperspace. He doesn't waste any time, throwing off the headset and clambering towards the tunnel only to see Rey rushing down there herself.
He frowns, and follows close behind.
The Silencer flies along tight behind the Wyvern as it prepares to jump, following every movement with pinpoint accuracy, and as Kylo is lining up another routine shot, the transmission breaks his concentration. Palpatine's message spills out, dragging on and on, and in the cockpit his eyes narrow.
Abruptly, the TIE wheels into a rapid spiral, and every gun it has fires on that ship. All four heavy laser cannons launch furious green plasma bolts into the little fighter, pushing the prototype craft's armament all the way to their limits, unloading into its shield and then the hull in an intense barrage.
Inside the cockpit, a soft klaxon sounds, lights blink wildly on the displays, warning of emergency coolant overrides activating. "The day of the Sith is /over,/" Kylo spits darkly to himself, making sure the comms are offline. He doesn't even look to see where the Wyvern ended up, wheeling away and screaming back towards the Finalizer.
Elrych didn't have to be told about the exploding, breaking debris of the Valor or the War Hammer. He had just barely escaped it from the former, Eggsy having fixed a bad motivator in the nick of time. IT had been a problem that cropped up during the launching sequence and kept him behind. He angles through zipping TIEs and fiery wreckage, his hands working the stick expertly and his feet manipulating the thrust controls just right. THe music gives him a flow to follow.
Eggsy gives him a few beeps regarding the hyper-jump calculations. The Jedi is angling his own path while loosly following Poe's beacon. One TIE is ripping across his fireing line, right in the way of where he needs to go. He takes a shot and it moves well out of the way. "Get out of my way..."
The Hologram comes to life in his ship, the Jedi blinking at it... "What..." He purses his lips hard gives the holo-image a rude gesture. He then shuts off the holo message not even half way though, not caring for what God Emperor Papilloma has to say. Reaching out for the hyper lever, he pulls it back after his s-foils drop into cruising mode and the T-85 blasts into Hyperspace.
If the broadcast drew anything out of Bryce, it was nonvisual, and nonverbal. He knew what would follow, he could already sense the future that would be coming their way. He knew Kylo. "Make sure the repairs are completed. Prepare for the Supreme Leader's orders," he demands, before he turns and leaves the bridge of the Ferrata.
