Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
The inside of the Blue Shadow was like what you'd get if your crossed the Mir space station with that old TV show "Lost in Space." Everywhere were big computers, over-sized buttons, dials and monitors that looked older than one of those television sets that were two feet deep at the back. It had the kind of smell you usually associate with an open boiler, musty, stale. Yet the undertone was off oil. Under the neon glow everything was flat and was exactly the same day and night. No wonder the crews of these beasts were replaced with droid, they'd go stir-crazy after just two days.
"Operation belt of the astroid phase one complete, proceed to phase two. Returning to Kebtach."
The twin ships lowered themselves below the asteroid belt, they could be tracked or seen on radar but would most likely be assumed to be scouts, only luring them further into the mine field and their doom.
"Copy Angel One, Silver Two is on your port wing." Dair slid Blizzard up into the slot on the left of [member="Sressechka"]'sfighter, keeping a few meters distance between the tips of their wings. Unlike their wing leaders fighter, the Jedi-class didn't have S-foils. Dair did arm all of his weapons, however. His hands moved with the sureness of the force, the readout on his HUD showed that both torpedo launchers were operational, both Ion Cannons were charged as were all four laser cannons. Dair checked his fuel level, shield status and countermeasures status, all were in the green and ready to go.
It was at this point, heart racing at a steady, fast rhythm, that separated normal pilots from Jedi pilots. Dair loved the rush of adrenaline, just the same as any other cockpit jockey, but Dair had another ally that many fighter pilots and naval officers couldn't boat. Dair closed his eyes and sent his mind down into the icy center of his being that connected him to the ever present force. He stretched out with that feeling of icyness and felt the presence of his wing mates in space around him.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Dair felt further, he felt the edges of the consciousnesses of the naval officers in the Republic fleet, there was some fear, as was present in any battle, but that fear was tamped down by discipline. Dair could practically see the sailors moving about with practiced precision as they followed the commands of the Republic Supreme Commander. Dair tried to stretch further, to try to feel their enemies, but this was not a skill he had truly practiced before, and he could only feel some bits of hostility from the edges of his perception. Dair had been doing a lot of studying, when the option for the recreation of a Jedi Starfighter Corps came up, and had come across mention of force abilities that could help decide the fate of such battles. The basis of most of those abilities was stretching the senses out, so periodically Dair practiced this. He hoped this would help him learn the abilities more swiftly.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Dair brought his consciousness back to the fighter he was in, though he let it flow through the fighter, merging his essence with Blizzard. His eyes opened and he could feel the edges of the fighter, he could feel the push of the engines as it hurtled him through space towards the enemy. Dair was one with his fighter. Dair was ready for this engagement.
"Roger that, Angel One." Evan said. He felt a little bit sad that he wasn't going to be flying at the ace's wingman, but he figured it was logical. Who would want a teenager as their wingman? I'll just have to make them regret not making me their wingman!
"All remaining Silvers, group up on me, we're going dogfighting! Let's charge up our cannons and arm what missiles we have!" Evan instinctively barked out orders. He was used to giving some out back when he flew with his father. For the first time in a while, Evan felt confident with a hand on the joystick and the other on the throttle.
Evan punched a few buttons and pulled a small lever. He noticed his fighter was armed with only six missiles. Not the full payload of the heavy fighter, but they weren't supposed to see combat today, so it makes sense. Evan laughed to himself as he did a barrel roll, grinning widely to himself.
Location:Republic Prototype Siege Cruiser Cloudbreaker, Axehead Cruiser, breaking through the asteroid belt
Commander Thayne was a very mobile man, the command seat didn't feel comfortable to him as he paced about his bridge, mostly keeping an ear open on the reports coming in and any relevant chatter coming through the comms array. The Jackals, the pirate group initiating this little sortie he supposed, seemed rather vocal if their talk to the Supreme Commander meant anything, and it actually was a bit annoying to the seasoned Republic officer. He didn't like the enemy talking, them talking allowed them to coordinate and also let them get far too full of themselves. He supposed they needed a reminder of the virtue of silence.
"Ensign, bring the communications jammer online. Wait for Communications to issue the warning to our forces to switch to our secure channel. Initiate our encrypted frequencies and get it done. No time like the present to show off some of the ship's features after all." They were making decent progress through the asteroid field at least, though they did have to blast away a few of the oversized garden pebbles that got in their way or came close to drifting into the Cloudrunner, but all the same there wasn't any helping that. Dallen just hoped the enemy wasn't looking too deep into the asteroids to see the red flashes.
Honestly he hated being so far behind, it meant he wasn't being of use yet, and with a ship as capable as the Axehead Cruiser he felt doubly disappointed in his crew's lack of effect on the battle yet. Still, at least they were making progress to get in the fight, and they could start now by using their communications jammer. "Commander, we've issued warnings to the fighter squadrons and the Admiral about switching to the protected frequencies, encryption code Blue is in effect. Shakedown of the system is good and generator is powered up. Beginning communication jamming of local space in three. . . .two. . . . one."
Thraxis heard [member="Flannigan Mcnash"]'s, "Understood Captain!" he would yell, trying his best to keep back a great big grin, though it quickly edged itself out. As he started to run to one of the turrets, a sick child like joy would slowly well up inside him, it was as if Thraxis had just been given a new toy.
As Thraxis reached one of the Turrets he had to keep himself from simply jumping in and shooting at every shiny metal thing in the devoid of space, though as luck would have it, he had seen every ship the Hutt Cartel had, as well as everything the Jackals had, essentially shoot anything foreign was his motto this time around.
As he started to gaze into the devoid around him, he would see ships flying around, buzzing through the emptiness, though some were friends, he saw others as enemies. His eyes burst into life, his fingers breaking their cold stasis as he started to pull back into a familiar rhythm, almost a metronome with his heart as the machine started to pull back, releasing a laser into space, then another, the locomotive motion swaying back and fourth, each rough pull back sending Thraxis another burst of sick, child like joy.
[member="Mongo Booshi Mella"]
[member="Dair Cotarin"]
[member="Evan Kenner"]
[member="Dallen Thayne"]
[member="Gir Quee"]
[member="Xander Black"]
[member="Kian Karr"]
[member="Sressechka"]
[member="Cadan Tazi"]
[member="Tiali Orazio"]
[member="Zylah Dvale"]
[member="Lok Jorunn"]
"Youz finally woke up uhu? Dont zhootz the minez now... " Ka-Aver chuckled into the com at @thraxis. Shooting like this was fun. He pulled the trigger and let loose another spray of death in the enemy general direction.
He saw a couple of fast moving fighters.
"Arent thoze jedaii zhipz... " he murmured unaware if he left the com open or not. He shook the thought away and then eagerly kept firing.
"Ztarboard! Incoming hoztilez!" he shouted to alert the turret crews on the ship of the possible danger of small fighters.
Kian centered himself in the force, allowing it to wash through him like a calming salve. This was the one thing he truly liked about flying and Kian wondered if it was the same for non-force sensitive pilots. When Kian was at peace he felt like he and his vessel were one....sort of the same way he felt when he was wielding his lightsaber.
This train of thought, however, was pushed aside as he and his allies entered the asteroid field. Kian, keeping in formation, began the process of prepping his weapons. He had twelve torpedos and his canons prepped and ready to go. The single Shadow Bomb that the vessel had Kian would save for later.
Then the turrets targeted them and Kian began evasive actions. Nothing fancy, just the swaying side to side and up and down of someone trying to keep his vessel difficult to target. He felt the slight shake in the stick as several blaster bolts came close enough to leak a little bit of energy out of the shields.
"Targeting the enemy vessel." Kian said, as he pressed the buttons and locked onto the ship firing at them. "Torpedo 1 and 2......away." Kian said pressing the trigger and sending two projectiles toward the firing ship.
From the depths of space came the Dirty Dozen. Some of the most ragtag boys and girls that most wouldn't even consider to ever be fighter jockeys - save for Lok and Alai, both of whom had been doing this stuff since the day they became the best of friends. The other ten buddies of theirs had grown attached to the crew and their cause during their journeys across the galaxy to cause havoc, steal, rebel, and otherwise make life for governments much harder than it typically was. Now they were on the opposite end of the playing field and were actually about to kill some of their own kind.
Oh well, their fault for not picking the winning side.
"Alai, patch our network through with the Republic's. I don't want 'em shootin' at us."
A beep signaled the joining of two encrypted communication frequencies, patching the entire squadron through to the Blazing Angels and their attached Jedi components.
"Ready, boss. They can hear us now."
Lok veered his own X-Wing into a loose wedge formation behind the assaulting starfighters. "Silver Lead, this is Dirty Lead," someone in his squadron snickered. "We're right behind ya and we should be appearin' on your HUD as friendlies. Watch your fire, check your approach vectors, and leave some of the baddies for us."
The pirate toggled off the comlink and readied his proton torpedoes.
“Sir, the Jackals are transmitting another message...”
“I don't want to see it, and I forbid anyone to pay any attention to it,” ordered the blonde man, “we need our concentration on the fight, not the mental games he wants to play. Communications, single out any frequencies they are using, and use the software to block them electronically from being picked up by any of the fleet's networks. If we have anyone who can jam their communication's at the source, I want them jamming it up.”
“Aye sir.”
He would beat me at such mental games... propaganda that is for certain. The man quickly shuffled the thoughts aside as the battle began to unfold in front of him. His fleet was outgunned at the moment, though when the Cloudbreaker would arrive, that would rapidly change. He suddenly received a notification that [member="Dallen Thayne"] had initiated the Cloudbreaker's communication's jammer to block and disrupt the Jackal's communications. Gir would have to recognize his initiative later on after the battle. He shook his head, turning his attention back to the battlefield.
He rapidly typed several commands into his console, bring up the tactical overlay. The Sapphire One is getting hammered by that cruiser...The admiral watched as large heavy bolts fell all around the craft, with some of them missing due to the ship's small size and agility and some missing due to the sensor jammer's effects. Still, more than enough fire was chewing away at its shields that Gir was worried he might lose the craft and its crew in the engagement if he didn't act quickly. He rapidly punched in the orders, ordering Sapphire One to retreat, while simultaneously moving the Redemption, Scarlet Three, and the Mid Rim Protector to edge in to physically block some of the shots coming out of the pirate's heavy crusier. He felt the hull beneath him briefly shift as the Redemption began to place itself between the pirate ship and the little patrol ship, but even as it did, he continued to issue out orders. His flagship joined forces with the Perlemian Paladin in tractoring in one of the nearby uninhabitated asteroids towards the rear of the fleet. Such a move would make it quicker for the Cloudbreaker to enter the engagement, while the asteroid itself could provide some physical cover for the Sapphire One to recuperate from the fire of the enemy cruiser.
As the patrol ship entered the relative safety of its newly formed defensive screen, Gir began to pull up damage reports. Because it had concentrated its fire on a much smaller craft, the pirate flagship had managed to shred through the Sapphire One's shields and into the hull itself. But with the smaller Half Fallen cruisers dividing up their fire on several targets significantly larger than the corvette, it would take a while for them to get significant results. He set across a new set of orders, linking the fire of all his long-range weapons on the Redemption, Perlemian Paladin, and Mid Rim Protector to concentrate their fire on a single Half Fallen cruiser.
Fleet Actions
-Redemption, Scarlet Three, and Mid Rim Protector move to defensively screen the damaged Sapphire One
-Sapphire One retreats, but Erebus array is still tracking the Jackal's flagship
-Redemption and Perlemian Paladin move asteroid from belt closer to engagement (the asteroid with the red arrow on the map)
-Cloudbreaker arrives at the edge of the battlefield
An old man approached the cyborg commander, he had a fringe of grey-white hair around his balding, mottled scalp. He had a wizened face and a back slightly hunched. With each movement there was the creak of old bones."Sir, they've ignored your last transmission. And-" he gulped his eye's like saucers he knew his captain could go off the rail with anger at being ignored, it was his Achilles heel. "-they've interfering with our communication." Rage hissed through his body, the crack and groan of metallic knuckle's, screeching a demanded released in the form of unwanted violence. It was like an explosion erupting; fury sweeping him off in ferocious waves. "Activate the belt of the asteroids."
"But Sir, our fighters are close to the area and we can't contact them with communication down, we'll lose men!" and the old man knew he had put his foot in his mouth, the captain was a show-boat and he didn't like to be ignored or questioned, so when the metallic monster loomed over him it was with surprise when the flat of his hand brushed past his fringe of grey hair and not his fist. "Activate it, and launch four shard class drop pods at their leading ship. And get me an Astro-droid, tell it to get communication back up and fire those damn buzz cannons. And get that damaged cruiser behind the rest, I don't care how just do it, if you have to actually get into a ship and board them and tell them my order's!"
Belt Of The Asteroid
Mine Field Explosion
The mines chanted their silent count down, the pillar of fiery smoke and dust, still boiling up from where the bombs had gone off in the asteroid field, was being violently agitated, the debri smattering all close enough to the deadly event. A series of new flashes broke out, lifting and spreading the incandescent radioactive gasses, and then a great gush of flame rose. A column of pure hydrogen must have rushed up into the vacuum created by the explosion; the next blast of flame, in a lateral sheet, and great rags of fire, changing from red to violet and back through the spectrum to red again.
OOC
Hey, just telling everyone that the explosion is not expected to kill their character, maybe you received major ship damage or if lucky minor, now this was aimed mainly at the NPCs mine including.
There was a line, groups of ten were filing into pods, they were made up of B2 Battle Droids, all except IG 99 their leader. There was a heavy 'clink' as the pods were sealed and a long ominous silence only broken by one solitary shout. "Firing first shard class drop pod, firing second, firing third, and finally fourth." They were sent spiralling towards [member="Gir Quee"], and his Arendal-class Heavy Cruiser.
Fleet actions
- Activating mine-field
- Reestablishing communication
- Moving Half Fallen Cruiser A, behind Kebatch and B
- Firing four shard class drop pods in an attempt to board
Damage Statuses (only listing damaged ships)
Kebechet v1 Crusier - 92
Half Fallen Cruiser A - 37
Half Fallen Cruiser B - 99
Looking back towards the Half Fallen cruisers for a moment, Xander shook his head. "Don't damn ruin my ship, these things cost money you know" he shouted towards the comlink and in turn towards [member="Flannigan Mcnash"]. Of course, the message didn't go through, the Republic had knocked out communications.
Sighing lightly, Xander brought his fighter into a small dive, narrowly dodging as a Republic fighter came flying overhead. "Well, that was close" he muttered to himself, shaking his head. Pulling out of the dive, he set his course at the damaged republic fighter. Shaking his head, he launched two torpedo's at the damaged cruiser. Yeah, those were his only two, but if anything they'd take those shields out and allow Mcnash to open fire.
"INCOMINGZ!" Ka-Aver roared and watched as half a dossin pirates ducked in vain in their tight turret chairs. As if that would help.
The torpedos of [member="Kian Karr"] crashed into the shields giving the pirates in the turrets a fine display of the energy explosions. An eager young crew member got himself a bit over excited and started to fire wildy after the fighters swarming past them.
"Noez! You IDIOTZ!" Ka-Aver roared and threw himself at the young pirate a few seats away. It was itsy bitsy to late and the turret did manage to fire a wide arc of shots tracking the fighter squadron through space missing its target but finding the allied half-engine frigate passing behind them. The damage was pretty much null but the action probably caused some confusion among the ships crew.
Ka-Aver grabbed the collar of the faulty shooter who blinked stupidly at the weequay. Ka-Aver held him with one outstretched arm easily oozing fury and the pirate quickly pissed his pants realising what he had done. Ka-Aver immediately sensed another smell as well - the smell of rum oozing from the smaller pirate. He noticed the bottle of corellian rum in the boys belt and made a loud curse. Snatching the bottle for himself he made a wide bow swinging the bottle down upon the boys head, leaving the boy bleeding by his feet on the metal floor of the canon-deck.
Ka-Aver shook his head and looked up at the nearby pirates checking out the comotion.
"Whatz are youz loking atz you worthlez piezez of no good ship-ratz! Get back and keep firez!"
He brought the cork of the flask to his mouth and removed it with a sound "blopp." Taking a deep drink he turned on the com strapped around his neck to confirm [member="Flannigan Mcnash"] s order and explain the misshap.
"Uh, we had a bit of a mizzhap bozz-captain. zituation under control. Nowez firing the long range guns"
He had to remember to talk with [member="Thraxis"] about not having drinking contests with fresh recruits on the eve of big battles he thought to himself and smiled at the memories of last night.
He then turned to the deck crew.
"Ignore the fighterz! Get them long rangers firing on the Zapphire! Fight godammit you zorrowful bastards! You got no future! No tomorrow! - might as well live like a pirate while youz CAN!"he bellowed and poured down another mouthfull of rum into the roaring abyss of his dry throat.
Alright, Silvers. This is the part where you form up. You and Four--you're my wingmen this round."Copy that, Angel One." Zylah, aka Silver Four replied. Zylah positioned her fighter on Sressechka's flank, on the opposite side of the one Dair was taking. She held her interceptor a bit back, letting the experienced pilot take the lead. The ship was fast enough to catch up or react at a moment's notice. One required the Force to manoeuvre it efficiently. Zylah checked the ship's monitors. Everything seemed to be in order. She made sure to arm all weapons. The ship was equipped with one GN-40 Twin Blaster Cannon, One Mine Layer (2 seismic charges), OneProton Torpedo Launcers (4 missiles) as well as one Jedi Shadow Bomb. This battle station ship was fully operational.
There is no chaos, there is harmony. The Padawan remained calm, attuned to the Force, allowing it to sharpen her senses. This process had started to feel more natural since her training with Corvus Raaf. She was aware of every monitor and every button within the small cockpit. As some of the other Jedi before her, Zylah too sought to become as one with the ship through the Force. She stretched out with the Force, feeling the soothing presence of another Jedi, going through the same process as her. She attempted to touch Dair, aka Silver Two, giving him a slight nudge with the Force. There was no message sent, she wasn't skilled enough to effortlessly send those off without losing focus on something else. It was simply to comfort him with the presence of another Jedi looking out for him. This was the first time she'd met him. She hoped they, as well as any other Jedi and Republic soldier risking their life, would make it back. Zylah was fully aware this was but a dream.
Zylah reflected on the instructions given by Sressechka, and prepared herself to go through with her orders. Two-stage assault. Don't smash into a rock. She hoped it would be as simple as it sounded. The battle appeared to go beyond that of the clash between ships and blasters, messages coming in of attempts to jam the communications of the other side. Encryption code Blue is in effect. Zylah switched to the protected frequencies, according to protocol.
Evan pulled back on the throttle of his fighter and pulled the trigger on his joystick. Green laser cannons tore through space and pounded on the shields of a jackal fighter. Evan locked the cannon fire to shoot all four cannons at the same time. He pursued the fighter through the asteroid field, pounding on it with cannons. He didn't use a missile with the massive amount of debris and rocks floating around.
Then, all of a sudden, something in the asteroid field exploded. It took the jackal fighter he was dogfighting with it, but whatever it was, it knocked out Evan's shields and gave his fighter some nasty scorch marks.
"Agh! Kark it all! What was that?!"
Evan calmed himself down and did a diagnostic check.
"Ahh...uh...sh-shields are down, hull integrity at eighty percent. I...think I got too close to a mine. Be careful in the asteroid field, Silvers!"
Location:Republic Prototype Siege Cruiser Cloudbreaker, Axehead Cruiser, exiting the asteroid belt
As the comm system switched over to encrypted frequencies and the Republic continued their efforts, Commander Thayne had to admit he was becoming particularly annoyed at the delays he and his crew had to suffer. That was behind them now as the Cloudbreaker broke through the edge of the field and began to surge ahead, aiming to pass the Republic fleet and bring the fight to the enemy, all forty quad turbolasers itching to blow through the hull of anything that wasn't a Republic or Civilian Vessel. "Engines to full now, don't have to worry about asteroid collisions anymore. Let's move ahead and bring our firepower to the mix, have shields to full and prepare to shift power as needed once we enter their firing arcs. Weapons I want our own trajectories plotted ahead of time so we're ready to fire when able."
A warning from one of his bridge crew though, drew the Republic Officer's attention from the Axehead Cruiser's plan of attack. "Sir there are detonations in the asteroid field. Not sure from what, reading more power than a normal torpedo but the damage in the area seems contained." Well that was odd. Dallen had to wonder how that happened. Still, it wasn't too concerning. The sensor station showed that the power readings weren't impressive enough to be far reaching. The enemy couldn't have used many ships to plant those explosives, nor were they large either. The readouts looked like the energy put out by the explosions would account for less mines or missiles than a corvette would carry. If they wanted to do more damage across the fleet they'd have to put more ships on the job, or bigger ones, after all one can only carry so much to pack onto a ship likely already crammed with other systems and such.
A few fighters in the area might be damaged sure, maybe a few of the freighter sized asteroids at most turned into debris that would be very problematic for the fighters as well to watch out for in dogfighting since it could go unseen until it smashed a canopy. However, the chances of this tactic proving particularly lethal to the fleet overall was. . . .slim. "They might buffer the shields of the smaller vessels on that side of our forces but I don't think the Admiral is in any especially bothersome danger. Helm, bring us ahead, I want all crew on alert. Close off non-vital areas and vent the air in them. I don't want fires or decompression on this ship if the hull is breached during the battle."
Arendal-class Heavy Cruiser Redemption, Roche System
Gir blinked as the asteroids exploded around the ships, almost instantly changing the nature of the battlefield. Shards of rock flew through space, impaling both Republic and criminal starships. Several sensor signatures on the admiral’s screen blinked out of existence, though the blonde man was not sure if that was from their destruction or the sensor-dampening nature of the billowing clouds of dust that the asteroid’s destruction had produced. He quietly cursed as the dust and debris engulfed his own ships in an expansive sea. Several of the rock shards had managed to pierce through the Arendal’s wakened stern shields, though the timely activation of the vessel’s anti-concussion field had helped mitigate some of the damage. But the dust made the battlefield far more interesting, fouling up the sensor returns for both Jackal and Republic ships. He rapidly typed in several commands, ordering his ships to cease fire and briefly alter their courses. In doing so, the Republic ships, with the exception of the Cloudbreaker which wasn’t in the thickest part of the dust storm, would be able to give the Jackals the slip, allowing them to further recharge their shields and make minor repairs.
But the Jackals threw a wrench in the admiral’s plan. Obscured and cloaked by the dust of the asteroid attack, the Shard-class Drop Pods made their run towards the admiral’s flagship initially undetected. But a quad laser cannon gunner noticed the last one approach, signaling his fellow gunners and opening fire on it. Quad streams of laser fire ripped through its shielding, turning it opaque before it disintegrated. But by then, the other three drop pods had successfully unloaded their cargos into the hull of the Redemption herself. Republic marines scrambled to towards the insertion sites. But as they did so, the laser traps and biometric security controlled blast doors began to restrict access into the ship by the intruders.
Fleet Actions:
All Republic ships aside from the Cloudbreaker change course and cease fire to avoid enemy fire Redemption is boarded by three of the Drop pods
Thirty, it was the number of droids that had made it, it was meant to be forty. One of them must have not made it, was it sullenness that now embraced his circuits, they were mean't for war that's why they were built and that's why they were expandable and had been sent instead of the organics. "I am designated as IG 99." A cruel joke..
It wasn't long before they were in formation, their forms were robust and made up of slow inclines and organic shapes, the hardened metallic shell giving them a glossy coat that made the light flicker and jump. And the twin mounted cannons were on their right forearm was checked and ready. It started with a very surprised janitor and than it spread to a very surprised Officer, the surprise was infectious and ultimately deadly, they would fire on all they saw leaving burned and belayed scorch marks on the grounds and walls.
They were heading towards the bridge, all the while IG 99 paused the assault to place a thermal detonator on the wall. "I am designated as IG 99." And continued, he did this at every hallway, and it would make for a explosive surprise if they failed.
Doors were be sealed, it would be slow but they would manage. They set their detnators moved a couple steps back and watched as the world was cast into a smoggy abyss, and they'd continue. Losing droid and fighting men. It would continue like that.
The spontaneously exploding asteroid field wasn't something entirely unexpected. Whenever there were obstacles in the vacuum of space, it was Murphy's Law to avoid those things at all costs unless you have complete control over it. In this case, the Republic lacked operational awareness in that sector of the system and it had cost them dearly - in pilots' lives and in structural integrity of their main cruisers. None of the Crimson Aces (Dirty Dozen) had been taken out by the massive outpouring of debris, since they were too far away and had a chance to avoid it, the heavy ships behind them lacked the maneuverability to evade them.
"Feth!" The Rebel growled, quickly followed by Lucky's own mechanical curse. "Aces, increase your altitude and get outta that pile of waste." He pulled up on his own piloting yolk, doubling his engine's output to sail sky-high over that immense cloud of rocky debris. That was some nasty stuff and should it get caught in an engine exhaust port or missile tube, you were done for.
Now that all twelve of them had elevated their altitude in space (yeah, I know), they went on the attack. Their first target was a Hutt Cartel-emblazoned vessel, firing all of its cannons with furious impunity. While it was bristling with weaponry and its own fighter screen, they were never a match for Lok and his boys.
"Hit 'em from up here?"
"Hell yeah."
The entire squadron zeroed in on the most damaged cruiser (Fallen Cruiser A) and began firing at it with all of their weaponry. Each fighter let loose with a few proton torpedoes before reeling back to respond to the surrounding hostile fighter elements. As for Lok, he had something special in mind for them. His X-Wing lacked proton torpedoes, but it made up for that fact by harboring an entire payload of a dozen Jedi Shadow Bombs - a pair of these things could cleave a Yuuzhan Vong corvette right in half.
He pulled the trigger just once and send one flying away, guided by the Force.
The cloud that spread out was a sight on its own and watching the fighters rush away from it became a cinematic experience for the gunners on Canon deck.
Ka-Aver watched as the enemy fleet seized fire and slowly started to turn, making them hard to track.
What the heck are we supposed to shoot at? the question was a good one and Ka-Aver watched the sensor loose sight of the enemy larger ships one by one. Then he noticed something. A small cloud of fighters heading straight for the Fallen Cruiser (A) who was ordered to go behind the Kebechet. They must have missed that the Kebechet was prepared to defend the cruiser. Eagerly he shifted seats and opened a com-channel to command.
"Clever... clever baztardz..." he hissed in the mice. "Bozz-Captain! Long range Canonz has no target. They dizzapeared in cloudz! We got incoming fighter squadronz. I belive I can zurpize them..."
"Hold.. hold..." he ordered and the canon deck fell silent in anticipation. Outside they watched as the allied cruiser passed them, the very cruiser one of their own young recruits had fired upon out of mistake just recently.
They could see [member="Lok Jorunn"] and his ships causing alot of damage to the cruiser as they swooped down dropping a huge amount of fire power on it. It was a sacrifice on their part but the moment of surprise just might be worth it.
As the cruiser desperately tried to manuever away they gave the Kebechet, Ka-Aver hoped, its element of surprise as they came into view with a free line of sight on the smaller fighters.
"FIRE!" Ka-Aver bellowed.
The Kebechets canon crew sprayed the space as its 80 Point defence canons fired trying to Catch the enemy squadron under [member="Lok Jorunn"] in a devestating net of canon-blaster.
And the unthinkable happen, a weak communication was set up with the neighbouring cruisers and corvettes, it was filled with static and it cut out every minute or so but it would be enough for his order's to reach his lieutenant ears. "Fire the buzz cannons on the large cruiser. Crusader corvette rise and deal with these fighters, activate your point defense cannons."
He moved up and down the dim of the bridge, the neon lights cascading off his mask in bands of light. Spouts of red and green light emerge from the heads of the tubular cannons, the light and spatter of the super heated plasma creating contrast between light and spaces darkness, giving it a faint ominous glow. Back and forth they pounded, people died in fighters and or queer accidents aboard some of the larger cruisers, a wrong movement of the hallway could send a crewman tumbling and quite possibly break his neck.
Round capsules burst from the half fallen cruisers, they had lights and a chime and way that they moved through the expanse of space, it was a whistling sound one might hear through a rusted pipe on a windy night. Some wouldn't make it and some would, burning up on contact or blown apart by the defences but some would hit and they'd begin to release their cargo, sabotage droids.
