Lum Running in the Silken Asteroids (ORC, Open)

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Edge of Silken Asteroids[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]The spacer was loosely tied with the Outer Rim Coalition. They just happened to be the latest organization in what she considered her home turf. And folk like [member="Vaudin Miir"] and [member="Ember Farseer"] convinced her to stick around. Even if it was mostly for the jobs.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]A girl had to earn credits to keep fuel in her U-wing and her belly full.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Wasn’t long before she got wind of a job, a quiet call going out to the wardens, spacers, and captains of ORC to deal with a pirate problem around the Silken Asteroids. And a more public call went out that a group of smugglers would be running some expensive lum across the pirate’s territory. Just so happened the pirates had been terrorizing the general populace enough to catch the Coalition’s eye but were small enough to evade any sort of consequences. And Kinsey needed a new power converter. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]So, she found herself waiting at the assigned coordinates, on the edge of the Silken Asteroid field. Fingers pushed down the plating on the smuggler’s den beneath her feet. “Can’t believe they supplied us with real lum. High end stuff too,”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Pibs, her pebbledrone warbled from the short steps up in the cockpit. Curved-shoulders shrugged. “Guess if we get boarded, they wanted to make the trap look more real.” Couldn’t help but frown at that. Even though it would be a, hopefully, well-orchestrated trap, plenty could go wrong. And the last thing she wanted was to get boarded.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]“Check the shared frequency again and see if any of the other friendlies have arrived?” Pibs swiveled its green-bulbous head, tweeted, and began the scan.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt][member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Griet van Vliet"][/SIZE]

 

[Griet van Vliet]

In what poodoo did I land myself into? Why did I have to drag T-account into this? Was that mission worth the missed billable hours? Was there going to be any donation at the end of this mission? I'd be interested in knowing how much is the compensation worth, especially since I know that the tax consequences depend on it. For minimizing ordnance costs, I had my own craft outfitted with eight proton bombs, more cost-effective than chucking guided ordnance of any kind, or larger bombs, and everyone else is in endurance configuration: bomblets are much more cost-effective per shot than ordnance, Griet thought, while her own squadron was powered down and, on a pirate's sensors, they would read as if they are escape pods that are adrift in the asteroid field, hopefully pirates would be lured to the likes of T-account or her and maybe even attempt to collect the "escape pods". Meanwhile, [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] was already into position inside the Silken Asteroids, and backup can be called if necessary. Such as [member="Coren Starchaser"]. Under radio silence they operated, lurking in wait and standing ready to intervene if the pirates showed up on their passive sensors.

Spoiler

Fiscal Terminator
12 Lyulka-class elite fighters (endurance configuration)

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Spacers seemed to be a dime a dozen in the Outer Rim Coalition. Whatever Merrill and crew had done while Coren was off fighting the war was good. Wardens and other wandering types had made their home in the Outer Rim and found solace behind these borders. Hell, even now, the remnants of the Alliance in Exile were finding themselves hiding in the borders, waiting for the time to strike. Rebels and Alliance types were all around the galaxy, but the truth of it was, a freighter captain was just as deadly as a Mon Calamari cruiser.

Of course, that was what the Coalition counted on. Smaller calls out to ship captains, smugglers, guns for hire, men and women on missions for credits. It fell to the Jedi Master that help was needed out there. The YT-2000 Tachyon Rising had heard the call that there were pirates out near the Silken Asteroids, and on a trip to bring some smaller supplies from his Sector Force straight to the D’Qar base, well, he had time to swing around.

And being a Warden, it was kind of part of his code. He was going to be moving some high end VIPs out to his and another Sector Force that were greeting the Sith on the borders, and helping move Alliance types away from the blast zone into more friendly worlds. Some planets had their fleets, others had people who wanted to leave, because, everyone knew the Alliance wasn’t perfect. But they were good enough most times.

Reverting to real space, he blasted out his sensors to see who else was around. U-Wing, some other fighters. He nodded. “Porter, open the channel.” The orange droid tweeted and the pilot nodded. “U-Wing and assembled fighters, this is General Coren Starchaser on the Tachyon Rising, are you under distress?” He really needed to ramp up his sensor suite again.

Soon.

[member="Griet van Vliet"]
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Griet van Vliet"]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Silken Asteroids[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]The girl had a feeling the fighters were out there. If everything went as planned they would be. Her sensors began to light up as small frigates began to gather. Comm channel pinged with new arrivals as more ORC members arrived and prepared for the run. Kinsey closed the short distance to the cockpit and strapped herself in, checking the readouts.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Not that she really needed to. She had that Starchaser blood. Always had been able to travel and navigate space intrinsically. Something preternatural. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Even with her force signature securely locked down and muted, per usual.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Finger slipped on one of the controls as a voice and familiar name crackled over the comms.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Coren Starchaser.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]“Chit,” she swore and Pibs warbled at its owner about the credit swear jar. Blues rolled. “Not NOW, Pibs.” The girl was…well, scared. She was tempted to pull out and punch out. What were the odds of meeting her Uncle all the way out here?! She hadn’t seen him or any of her family since she’d gotten free from Sage Bane. Served time in Alliance prison and gotten force healed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Teeth ground. Pushing past her moment of hesitation, she flipped open the shared channel, noting the others were organizing into pairs for the run. Made sense not to get too split apart. Good thing her voice would be a bit distorted by the natural static on the comms. “No trouble here, General. This is Wanderlust heading in with a full cargo. Scanners will get a bit wonky with the rocks, so watch your six.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]The spacer eased the U-wing forward, dipping smoothly into the field of chaos along with the handful of other ORC freighters. Wouldn’t take much for pirates to get the drop on ‘em. They had the home field advantage.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]“Keep your sensors up, Pibs.” The pebbledrone tweeted indignantly as if its owner should expect nothing less.[/SIZE]

 

[Griet van Vliet]

Something's not right. It seems to be quiet, too quiet for our own good, she thought, while she was waiting for the right opportunity to power up. But, for that, she needed the pirates to close in on them so that the element of surprise would actually be present. The powered-down fighters still read as escape pods to pirates in this asteroid field, thanks to sensor distortions caused by asteroids. But the pirates, ex-GA personnel that betrayed the Alliance with Taeli, were closing in on her, which, for the pirates, was not a trivial operation on its own. Even less when the likes of [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] or [member="Coren Starchaser"] were in the area, with a convoy of supplies for the various outposts, mining or otherwise, passing through the area. The person they perceived as the most valuable of the gang laying in wait, Griet, was in the crosshairs of these bandits, and, as they were closing in on her, she immediately ordered the squadron to power up when the pirate heavy corvette was within a ship length of Griet. But because of those sensor distortions, she couldn't see it until this point.

"Pirates detected!" she told the Starchasers. "All craft, power up!"

"Roger, Fiscalist Actual"

Griet then lurched out of the pirates' flight path, but in the density of this asteroid field, space was tight and the pirates opened fire at her; while they failed to score hits, they did manage to tear out some asteroids that also caused near-misses, and only have a few pieces could somehow force Griet to veer off-course. Too busy they were to hunt and shoot down Griet, the pirates didn't suspect that there were other craft coming in from multiple vectors; T-account came in from underneath and, amid that sea of asteroids, of which the shields could absorb the smaller of the gang, albeit at a particle shield cost, still managed to fire a half-power bomblet at the corvette's underside, in hopes of at least draining their shields, if not punching a hole through them, and rendering them vulnerable to asteroid debris the pirates are tearing off in an attempt to chase down the blonde pilot. But by tearing off asteroids, they are making their own job of getting to the supply convoy harder; would the Starchasers exploit this opportunity to help Griet out in defeating those pirates?

Spoiler

Fiscal Terminator
12 Lyulka-class elite fighters (endurance configuration)

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The Starchaser Patriarch was waiting or the calls to action and letting the other ships get their lines in order. Porter was doing his thing and marking the fighters and the U-Wing as green, the ones that seemed a bit more friendly, even if they were registering neutral. He wasn’t worried about them turning, but there was something comforting about seeing another smuggler.

“Roger that Wanderlust. Not my first trip into a field.” He laughed over the comms. But before he even got anything back from the fighters, he was seeing the call to action.

Reaching across the control console, Coren flipped the switch, to bring up the deflector shields. “Porter, power up the automated controls on the turrets. I’ve got front weapons.” Pushing the throttle up, he moved for the U-Wing. The YT-2000 was bigger than the fighters and if he could keep himself between the pirates and the U-Wing, that was something. Plus he could hit the fighters with the turrets.

“Get your fighters moving, Fiscal.” Came the order.

[member="Griet van Vliet"]
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Griet van Vliet"]

Kinsey punched the s-foils into a backward-facing position. Fixed laser canons came online. Pibs beeped and booped next to her. "Yeah well, you fire and I fly. Just like over Jakku."

Pibs whistled shrilly.

"What do yah mean hopefully not as bumpy?!" Starchaser blues flickered to the viewport as the asteroids around her began exploding and pinging across her shields and heavy armor of the u-wing. Friendly and foe fighters mingled in the chaos.

She definitely wouldn't be able to outmaneuver a star fighter in this thing. She just had to stay alive long enough. And whether she wanted to admit it or not, Coren was actually helping as the full back. The girl heard her Uncle's command over the comm.

So bossy.

Odd how the group of pirates picked up on the awaiting squadron first. Unless. Kinsey opened the shared comms. "We've got at least two separate groups. You ever hear of pirates working together?"

And had there been a leak in ORC? Was one group bounty hunters? That made her blood chill to level of space outside.

 

[Griet van Vliet]

At least the trap was working, she thought, while the bomblet drained the underside shields. While the pirates are busy dealing with the fallout of the bomblets falling all over the place, the bridge's viewport has been cracked, thanks to [member="Coren Starchaser"]'s firing a quad-laser cannon at the bridge viewport; the pirates were now caught in a nightmare caused by asteroids being blasted all over the place. That they themselves blasted thinking that their only hope of defeating the fighters, targets that were much more maneuverable than a heavy corvette is, was to blast asteroids hoping that the shrapnel would take them out. Their weapons were so antiquated, worn-down by asteroid dust that they would be unable to track a Lyulka with any level of precision; however, the consequence of this is that they were on the clock. So Griet had to be quick in dropping her fully-charged bomblet on the main turret, which was the closest to the main reactor; even then, every craft's particle shields were being drained by the withering rainstorm of asteroid dust. The cloud of asteroid dust is closing in on [member="Kinsey Starchaser"]...

"My particle shields are down!" T-account shouted.

"Shunt some power from ray shields to particle shields!"

Spoiler

Fiscal Terminator
12 Lyulka-class elite fighters (endurance configuration)

 

[Coren Starchaser]

If the Starchasers had a familial trait, it would be to out pilot nearly anything in the galaxy. Maybe on par with some Sullustans, or Duros, or Merrills even. Though Coren would never really admit it, competing against [member="Jorus Merrill"] in a ship-to-ship contest would always be one of those things he wanted to do. But for now? He just had to get through this asteroid belt and help the pilots around him.

The Coalition had sent out a squadron, apparently, and that was filling in the space with some more friendlies. Coren wasn’t nervous about some pirates. Hell, if anything else, he’d be able to plot a microjump out of system. Having served as a strike commander, he was used to giving orders. But I the squadron was Coalition? It wasn’t his command.

Looking over his shoulder, Porter tweetled at the General. Weapons were online and the turrets were blasting heavy shots at the fighters. Waiting for the pilots to get in front of them, he was taking the shots he could, but was more focused on keeping closer to the U-Wing.

“Can we hail them?” He asked his droid.

[member="Griet van Vliet"]
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Griet van Vliet"]

Selar watched as the fighters and various groups tangled in space. She grinned, holding a cup of caf in her finger-less gloves and readjusting her jacket. Piracy paid sometimes, but what this was more of a scavenging mission.

She thumbed a button to Krell her Nikto companion.

"They fell for the bait. Activate the scrapper nets and lets see if we can pull some o' their ships apart."

The SS Laughing Skull, her small black Jast 1 Freighter drifted in the void, powered down for the most part.

Huge rigs powered up, tractor beams fire up as well targeting the ball of fighters.

Krell laughed on the comms, watching the nets come online, blue spiderwebs in between the ol rusty arms.

"I call dibs on the nicest shuttle parts."

She smirked, corner of her mouth twitching and sparked a smoke, puffing.

"Yeah we'll see whats up."

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Selar Silar"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Griet van Vliet"]

Pibs razzled.

"Yeah that net looks nasty. AND let's stay away from the debris cloud there," Kinsey gritted her teeth and spun the U-wing around and went for a nose dive. Laser canons fired, clearing a path of some of the more greedy and foolhardy pirates as they tried to get closer to her position. Even the tough, hull plating of her retired-war ship vibrated and shuddered as more of the debris pinged off the outer shields.

Her pebbledrone tweeted once, swiveling its green-domed head her way.

"Yeah. Closer to that big one. Looks like some tunnels. Trust me."

H'oy boy. Hopefully the spacer was right. Fingerless-gloved hands gripped the controls tightly as she eased them even closer to one of the larger asteroids. Looked almost big enough to be a destroyer.

Comms went to the fighers and Coren.

"Gotta peel off. Hopefully I'll see you on the other end."

 

[Griet van Vliet]

"It's going to blow! Get out of here, now!" she told [member="Coren Starchaser"] while he attempted to hail her.

The tractor beam trying to get locks on the fighters instead collected debris from the exploding pirate heavy corvette, and also some large asteroid fragments. Meanwhile, the fighters endured being buffeted by the debris, with several of them having hulls looking like half-eaten Emmental cheese as a result of asteroid impacts incurred in an attempt to outrun the dust cloud being kicked by the corvette's explosion. Plus that cloud of debris was inbound for [member="Selar Silar"]'s group as well as [member="Kinsey Starchaser"], lurching dangerously close to the former. So it was entirely possible that any other hostile would be at risk; it was a risky race against the clock for Griet and her squadron, and they dashed every which way in an attempt to avoid more debris scorching their hulls; they nee Hopefully Kinsey and Coren will receive some share of the loot from those downed pirates they were originally there to attack. Typically, elite fighter hulls are cheaper to repair than to replace. Now, if they held securities, would they take them or the securities will fall onto me and my group? she thought, while attempting to retreat to safety so that they could fight another day.

Spoiler

Fiscal Terminator
12 Lyulka-class elite fighters (endurance configuration)

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Great, Pirates. Coren nodded and using the iBorg implant, brought up the combat suite of controls on his ship. Somewhere there was a song that only Kenny Loggins and Sterling Archer knew all the lyrics too playing in the background. The pilot grinned. This is where he shined, after all. He could feel the turrets in his own mind, and this was going to stress him out, so they were, at least partially, commanded by the automated system. Looking at his droid, and still sensing the sensor suite, Coren spoke to his droid.

“Track our friendlies, especially that U-Wing.” He turned back to the combat and the situation unfolding before him.

The U-Wing may not be too useful in combat, designed, at least in part from the Alliance, to deliver troops and provide some support. Still, his freighter was probably more tuned up for the coming combat. “U-Wing, keep yourself moving, get to the edge of the rocks.” He was going to keep with, but he had a few things he could do to the fighters.

The Squadron seemed to be handling themselves. ORC, maybe? “Keep your fighters moving, I’m scanning for a weak spot.” He ordered the squadron before turning to try to contact the pirates.

“Pirates, this is Galactic Alliance vessel Tachyon Rising. You sure you want to do this? Power down the nets and beams and we’ll be on our way.” He didn’t need to announce his name, a quick search would find this ship tied to General Coren Starchaser. He knew that help was a bit far back, but he wasn’t too worried.

[member="Griet van Vliet"]
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
[member="Selar Silar"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Griet van Vliet"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

SPACE
NEAR Y'ALL

"Whoa! Krell get that debris out O' da way!"



Meanwhile the Nikto puffed on his cigar and tossed and turned, throwing levers and jamming swicthes. Swooping tractor beams roved the debris cloud, redirecting most of it off of her vessel, and into the nets where it was promptly recyled and collected. Some pieces still got through and one nailed her crafft, shearing a meter long gouge in the dorsal side.

"Yea yea, keep your pants on! I'm doing it!"

"Ungh! What the Feth!"

Then Corens transmission came through.

She jammed the cigarette in her lips and fired up the main generators, salvaged twin ion engines roaring to life.

The cigarette bobbed in her mouth as she patched through to Coren.

"Ha ha ha! Tachyon Rising eh? Ya call that hunk O' Chit an Alliance vessel?"​

She flipped a few switches, using her slaved systems to redirect a beam Corens way and try and pull him slowly but surely towards the net.

​

"Let's see what she looks like on the inside though eh? Captain Selar Silar, by the way SS Laughing Skull. This is Black Sun Syndicate Territory now buddy!"​

Her location was pinged and she glanced down, a wicked grin curling her lips.

Cavalry was en-route.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Selar Silar"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Griet van Vliet"]

Hands yanked the controls so the U-wing peeled off port-side and dipped inside a massive hole within the large asteroid that filled up her viewport. Pibs made a low-humming sound. Kinsey expected the sudden darkness that went beyond the pitch of space. She expected the tight corridors of the asteroid tunnel. She even expected some of those asteroid worms.

She didn't expect the corridor to suddenly open up into a massive, hollowed out space swarming with one of the pirate groups outside.

Pibs shrieked a whistle.

Kinsey fumbled the comms to Coren's ship.

"Think I found the pirate base!" She didn't even know if the message would go through with all the asteroid interference. She might very well be on her own. Not that he didn't have enough to occupy himself back outside. Kinsey's gaze flickered to her droid.

"Turn off all external and internal cabin lights. I'm making for that rock-cropping over there. Here's hoping we get lucky. Maybe they didn't see us yet."

 

[Griet van Vliet]

"found... base" the garbled message from [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] filtered through, with sketchy coordinates.

"Hit that base and retreat off the system!"

Griet was taking a tortuous route to that pirate base, in the rock cropping on a rather large asteroid, while [member="Selar Silar"] did, in fact, collect asteroids and debris from the corvette's destruction. So he won't get out of there empty-handed. However, she could feel that time is short to destroy the base with a bombing run of full-power energy bomblets. And the debris from the corvette and the asteroids that didn't get collected were just drifting in space aimlessly but on a straight line, so it may threaten other asteroids. Plus [member="Coren Starchaser"] was in a standoff with the pirates; Griet was now in a position that is a little convoluted to drop those bomblets after at least 20 seconds of flight. Yet because of the large blast radius of these bomblets, all craft had to maintain a safe distance before dropping them on the asteroid base. And then, after dropping the bomblets, they are bugging out from the asteroid field, once again, in hopes of confusing the pirates that would be attempting to get at them and catching them off-guard. But these pirates would have to cross a wave of debris to get to them.

Spoiler

Fiscal Terminator
12 Lyulka-class elite fighters (endurance configuration)

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Terrific. Black Sun Syndicate. The Corellian pilot was ready for anything, but the Black Sun were not a group he wanted to deal with on his own. Backup may not be close behind, but he did have his personal ship, the one he hand built, and modified, on his own. This vessel was his home for him for years. Not as nice as a private yacht, something with solar sails, but she was a rough and trouble.

“Black Sun, huh? And you’re comin’ for the General of the Alliance in Exile? Stones on you, pilot.” He shook his head. Pushing the shields to front, he started to move the weapons, turrets targeting. And he hoped he could cause enough distraction for the U-Wing to get away. If he could get that pilot away, maybe it wasn’t a bad day. And the squadron support? That was nice.

Looking over the scanners, he saw the U-Wing head into the belt and could hear through static. “pirate… base…” Great. They were in their turf. Shaking his head, he turned his ship around and went straight for Laughing Skull. Weapons were hot, he just needed range.

[member="Selar Silar"]
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
[member="Griet van Vliet"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Griet van Vliet"]

NEAR YA'LL

"Har har, there ya go."

"Yuuuuuuup."

So they were turning around, and a few of them had actually found the nearby base?

"Oh yea by the way we can hear you. These scrapper nets got a few odd's n' ends."

As Coren gunned for her, she whipped the agile Jast 1 nose over tail, to face his craft. Her thumbs depressed a button on the yoke. Shields arced forwards, like half blue eggs, and rotary cannon fire began to spew from the chin of the SS Laughing Skull.

Sensors pinged again.

From the far side three Marauder Class Corvettes and refitted Action IV transport emerged. Nothing fancy, all rust and random pieces of plate welded on. Except for when they began disgorging a squadron of battered bruised looking TIE's.

"Yeah we got stone's General. Tell me, got anything valuable aboard that wreck?" She asked, holding her headset as her flurry of rounds continued....

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Griet van Vliet"] [member="Selar Silar"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

Griet's crackled message came through the comm clipped to her belt.

What?

There was a slight shake as the explorer brought the U-wing down behind the outcropping of a boulder. Or it was a pile of something else. Didn't really want to think about it all that much with tunnel worms being able to regurgitate. Something seemed off. This couldn't just be one pirate group.

"Hold your fire on the base," voice shot back to Griet. "I have an idea. Just keep an eye on my...," chit. Almost said Uncle. "...the others. Starchaser and the others. Give me some time gorramit!"

There was that mouth of hers. Head snapped to Pibs. "Watch the ship." The girl was met with a low whistle. Shoulders shrugged as she grabbed an oxygen mask and a case of the lum. "It'll be fine, bud and don't say give me that look with your beady, red sensor."

The door to the U-wing opened with a swish-hiss and Kinsey stepped out.

 

[Griet van Vliet]

"Roger, roger"

So [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] wanted to salvage what's left of another base, or have some alternate means to destroy it? She couldn't turn down an ally using an alternate method, for which she was simply circling around, on CAP. Were there two pirate bases, only one of which was hit? she thought, while making for another nearby location within the field. Oh well, she could always blame sensor interference for giving her coords to one base while Kinsey was at another. Meanwhile, [member="Coren Starchaser"] and [member="Selar Silar"] were in a standoff and she stood ready to attempt engaging them once the smoke cleared around the first base, if Coren called for backup. For the time being, anyhow, Griet was just moving from an asteroid to another to escort the U-Wing Kinsey got off from. And provide protection against other pirates. Yet, should Coren lure the pirates up to Griet's current location, the time was ripe to start bombing runs on the pirate ships and/or to engage enemy TIEs, all of which probably have seen better days. But she had to trust Kinsey for the time being.

Spoiler

Fiscal Terminator
12 Lyulka-class elite fighters (endurance configuration)