Battle: Raid at Balmorra

[Rameth]

((Closed to Taung characters. This battle will involve my character, Kalin Skirata, as well as Kavrin Skirat and Kot Prudii. If you are a Hutt or Republic character and wished to be involved PM me. OOC thread here.))

Hyperspace was multitude of color that was soothing to watch, even for someone as such as Kalin. He always enjoyed observing it through the windows during his travels. The first time he saw it was years ago, though he was more relaxed then. Nearly no troubles in the galaxy. It was a different time then, not necessarily better, but different. Kalin had grown tremendously since and this was one of the moments that proved it.

“We will be arriving shortly sir”, a Neimoidian officer informed him, bringing his attention back to the present.

Kalin turned and looked around the bridge. He was standing aboard a Dread-class warship designed by the Hutts. It was on loan, so to speak, from the Hutts for the mission. It began when Mand’alor was contacted by the Emperor’s men and tasked with raiding an important planet. Mand’alor, being a busy man, gave the responsibility to Kalin. He was to raid the planet Balmorra, an industrial planet important to the Republic. As the focus of his mission was the raid they didn’t plan on staying. As soon as the targets were destroyed they would retreat. It seemed simple enough but rarely was anything in battle that simple.

“Exiting hyperspace in 3……2……1”, the vessel seemed to grunt and moan as the vortex was replaced by a single planet surrounded by stars.

“Open a channel with the other ships as well as my men. Start the jamming signal immediately, they won’t be calling for help anytime soon.”, Kalin brought five other ships with him, another Dread-class warship and four Malice-class Gunships. He figured this was enough firepower to insure the missions success. The order to contact his men referred to the Taung he had brought with him during this mission. Though he was forced to use Hutt tech and equipment there was no way he was leaving the vital objectives to these buffoons.

“Jamming active, channel open.”, Kalin began speaking immediately, “Launch all squadrons, give them no opportunity to defend themselves. All Mando’ad squad leaders proceed to your objectives. All others your objectives are to defend the main squadrons." , with this thirty-two squadrons of Pondhopper-class Starfighters rushed from the ships.

The plan was simple. His Taung squad leaders commanded two squadrons each. They would be tasked with destroying any defenses around their intended targets. The remaining squadrons would be tasked with destroying opposing starfighters that intervened. The targets were some of the largest factories at Balmorra’s capital. There were other prime targets situated around the world but destroying them would take to long and speed was imperative. Once enough of the capitals defenses were destroyed or preoccupied Kalin would launch a barrage of concussion missiles at prime targets in and around the city. There would be civilian causalities but they would be acceptable.

 

[Finbar800]

Kot took the jump out of hyperspace with ease. He was as good in the pilots seat as he was with a rifle. Which was good. His father tought him how to fly and maintain a ship well. The training turned out usefull, and Kot had several of his own ships. The one he was using now he owned. It had specila modifications to enhance maneuveravility, speed, and firepower. Kot didn't care what he had for weapons on a ship as long as it could move with agility.

He looked at his dashboard and turned on the HUD for his fighter. He turned on the comm link to his squadron and said, "This is Kad Leader. Copy." The rest of his squad reported in. There was 12 in total. He chose a smaller squadron with more experience.

"Alright. All squad members report to the rendezvous point and await further orders." Kot then turned on the transmitter to the main warship.

"Commander Skirata. This is Kad Leader. All Kad members are moving toward the rendezvous point. We will comence the attack on your signal. Over."

Kot looked out the cockpit window into the deep void of space.

This is going to be fun.

 

[Cailst]

"And that, is how I saved Christmas," Paul said smugly.

"What? The partridge didn't even have wings. And if you were on Alderaan, how did you get to Denon in time?" a woman asked with incredulousness.

"Mysteries of the force," he said mysteriously.

"You're gonna turn into a Jedi if you keep this crap up," she said.

"And next, I'll be able to detect the Taung through the force on Life Day!" he said.

At that moment, red blinking lights suddenly started going off. Paul, the leader of the local garrison immediately ran to the security room. Others soon ran in as well. Turning on the projector, Paul saw the virtual representations of the ships appear. Hutt ships. Not a tremendous surprise.

At the moment, the Hutts were decently above the atmosphere. Not far below was a large maze of mines. Of course, being an industrial planet, there were well charted paths through them for commercial vessels. However, even if the Hutts knew the charts, they'd still be moving into areas well sighted by various MAC cannons, both ground based and satellite based.

For a second, a small beep went off, a voice then went online,

"They've jammed our normal communications, we're now resorting to optical communication means."

"Okay, be sure to jam their communications as well." Paul responded.

Around the upper atmosphere, MAC cannons began going off firing as fast as they could against the Hutt ships. From the ground, aircraft fighters began their sorties. If something happened that the Taung penetrate into the atmosphere, they would be ready to intercept them with the advantage of being built for the air. In other parts of orbit, several groups of capital ships began to converge where the Taung had appeared out of hyperspace. A few had carriers with squadrons of fighters and bombers ready to pounce on the attacking fleet. On other ships, gunmen prepared to fire off a volley of fire at the Taung. Corvettes prepared to deal with the incoming fighters and bombers that could threaten some of the other ships. Balmorra was at war.

 

[Rameth]

Kalin looked at the projection in front of him. It showed him own and the Republics defensive array. The minefield was a few thousand kilometers below the task force. He didn’t plan on entering there anytime soon. He wouldn’t need to get that close if all went to plan. As expected the defensive fleet around the planet was moving to intercept him. The few ships that were in range began firing. Their shields were holding for now. It was the MAC cannons defense guns that would become a real problem. As if on cue the ship groaned under the force of the blow from a MAC round. His ships sent forth a slow, steady stream of fire in retaliation. It wouldn’t do much but it would keep them preoccupied for the time being.

“Shields?”, Kalin queried.

“The shields are holding for now sir. We won’t last under sustained fire and I wouldn’t suggest waiting for the defense fleet to-”, Kalin cut him off before he could finish.

“I only asked about the shields. That’s enough”, he remarked.

They wouldn’t be here long enough for the defense fleet to put up a sufficient defense. Although, just in case, his ships were ordered to apply nearly all power available to shields to fend of the wave of attacks that were no doubt in their future. First they needed to punch a hole in the minefield. The squadrons could take care of that. After they had succeeded they would need to tie up the capitals defenses in the immediate area.

“Sir they are attempting to Jam our communications.”, an officer informed Kalin.

“We expected as much. Continue alternating frequencies every few minutes. That should keep us ahead for a little while.”

The squadrons moved out from the task force like a creature in itself. There were so many heading toward the capital. Nearly three hundred ships were descending towards Bin Prime. They were so numerous they blacked out a section of the planet for a time. Soon they would be breaching the minefield and the capital ships could begin their objective.



((I want Falcon to post next, then Finbar, then Grand Vizier, then back to me. It will continue like that from here onward.))

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Kavrin sat in the cockpit of his pondhopper starfighter. He hated the design of the starfighter, and hated that the Hutts hadn’t provided them with something more advanced, but the ships would get the job done. As the fleet came out of hyperspace, Kavrin and his squadrons stormed from the hanger of the ship, and into open space. Immediately the Republic defenses began firing at the Taung fleet, attempting to stop them.

“Tracyn squadron commander ready, follow”, said Kav over the comms.

Each member of his squadrons reported in, signaling combat readiness.

“We have orders from the Alor to destroy the mines in the path of our forces. One shot to each mine should do it, just make sure you and your squadmates are clear of the blast before you fire. Once we have paved a path in the field to the surface, I want all but one squadron to return to the fleet and provide defense and protection. The rest will follow me and attempt to send one of those MAC cannons to the surface.”, said Kav.

With that, his squadrons branched out like a cloud, heading straight for the minefield. Firing, they were able to very quickly destroy each mine in the path of the cruiser. Huge explosions decorated the skies of Balmorra as the Taung starfighters destroyed the mines. In some places, chain reactions destroyed arrays of mines that were situated close enough to one another. Within a minute most of the mines in the path of the Taung ship were destroyed.

 

[Finbar800]

"Alright Kad Squadron, move out. Let's get to the capital and make this quick. Everyone comes home tonight," said Kot.

His squad turned and began to head down to the surface. There were plenty of other ships coming as well. There's a lot of fighters! thought Kot.

He grabbed his throtle and pushed it foward causing his ship to go faster. Laser cannon blasts began to come from the MAC cannons destroying a couple of fighters. Kot dodged one that was coming his way.

Thank goodness for this agile fighter. Unfortunately the cannon blast went past him and into another ship. Damn it!

The massive fleet of starfighters decended into the atmosphere ready to die for their cause...

 

[Cailst]

"Who set up mine field 34A?" Paul asked.

"Whoops, at least the other mine fields weren't that badly set up. And they still have to penetrate 34B and 34C which don't self detonate." One engineer meekly said.

"Okay, they better not." Turning to another engineer, "Do you have inter-stellar communication back online?"

"Yeah, we just switched the frequency to an unjammed one."

"Good, send a message to Tran Xu, he should be nearby."

Meanwhile, some of the high altitude AA began to come online. As squadrons of fighters began penetrating the minefields, shells were lobbed upwards to take out the somewhat more stationary fighters. Of course, they were designed not to take out the mines and while one mine field was damaged by some stupid engineer, the others were more intelligently designed.

The MACs continued to pound ships. For a moment, one was disabled but the others kept on firing at the ship. In other places, atmospheric fighters were beginning to engage the incoming Taung. Around the planet, defense fleets were in long range of the invading fleet and began firing off a few missiles.

And a few systems away, Tran Xu was notified of the attack and began immediately preparing to jump to hyperspace.

 

[Rameth]

Th battle was going as planned. Kalin was glad to see everything falling into place. The Republic were still acting as he predicted. It was nearing the time when he would recall the fighters. Just a few more things needed to be done.

“Sir, the mines have stopped detonating from a single shot. Its taking to long to clear the section of the minefield.”, an officer informed Kalin.

“I see. Switch plans. A barrage of missiles should do the trick. Proceed when able.”, Kalin replied back.

If the mines became a hassle the plan was to launch two missiles at each mine. It wouldn't be hard considering Kalin's task force could fire over a hundred missiles at once. He only needed a small section of the minefield destroyed, just so they wouldn't obscure the ships field of vision over the capital. The first wave of missiles launched from the ships and devastated the small section ahead. The remaining missiles headed toward the planet aimed at the capital.

“Sir, the Republic have broken our jamming single. They sent a distress signal through.”

“No matter. They won't get here in time. Prepare the remaining barrages once their fighters are engaged our own.”

The ship shuddered under the impact of another blast. The task force was taking sustained fire from both the MACs and the, still far away, defense fleet. Kalin would need to leave soon or risk losing a ship.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Kav flew through space, blasting mines here and there on the way to the MAC cannon station. He hadn't made much progress when over the comms he heard that the plan had changed, and he knew exactly what that meant.

"Attention Tracyn Squadron, this is Tracyn Leader. There has been a change of plans. All fighters form on me, we are heading into the atmosphere and will be engaging the enemy fighters there.", said Kavrin over the com.

Kavrin's wing flipped around, regrouping with the rest of the squadrons. Once in formation, the fighters turned planetside, plunging towards the atmosphere, the planets gravitational pull bringing them in. As Kavrin's fighters reached the capital's skies, enemy fighters began closing in.

"Tracyn you are go to engage, I repeat, go to engage. Stick to your squads and cover each other. Wipe these pathetic excuses for warriors out.", said Kavrin.

The many fighters following Kavrin spanned out, blackening the skies of the capital city in what would surely be the biggest dog-fight the skies of Balmorra had ever seen.

Kavrin and his squadmates winged up, and engaged the first group of fighters they saw. They blasted 4 of them away immediately, and engaged the others.

 

[Cailst]

In the skies above, some Taung fighters began penetrating into the atmosphere. Balmorran fighters near the upper reaches of the atmosphere began to engage the Taung. While some poorly trained recruits got blasted away, more and better fighters showed up. Their aerodynamic advantages would soon show themselves in dogfighting and simple maneuvering which would likely mean that the Taung would be driven away.

Further above, in the minefields, some Taung fighters and ships were trying to break through. The minefields were better designed and one going off would not destroy the rest of the mine field so Taung progress was much slower. However, they were still being destroyed by missiles. Eventually, they would break through. But to speed things up, they were only focusing on breaking through a small portion of the field. Therefore, several guns on the ground were concentrating heavily on the one spot as they had no need to spread out. Also, the MAC guns in orbit were also very concentrated on that one spot. Anti-missile defenses were also going off to intercept the various missiles coming at them. Fortunately, the missiles were still coming from far away so the interceptors would be able to destroy them without much of a hassle.

Elsewhere in space, several groups of ships in the area finally began closing with the Taung fleet launching their own missiles and other mid-range armaments. Soon, they would get close enough to the raiding fleet to do some serious damage.

Tran Xu's fleet was finally in hyperspace and would be coming out any moment. Fortunately, he had not been far away so he would arrive any minute. His arrival would most likely shoo away the Taung if they weren't already gone.

 

[Rameth]

The battle was perilous but finally the last part of the plan came together. A barrage of missiles flew from the task force toward the capital. Within seconds the skies above the capital filled with hundreds of missiles. Kalin watched as the first few managed to get past the defense systems.

“Order the fighters back. We're leaving.”, Kalin ordered, the job was done.

Kalin shielded his eyes as a blast unlike he'd ever seen before engulf the city. If he didn't have his helmet on he might have been blinded for a few moments. When he put his hand down he saw a large mushroom cloud where the city used to be.

“What the dar'yaim was that?!”, Kalin barked at one of his officers.

“I...I don't know sir.”, the officer studdered.

Kalin couldn't believe his eyes. The Hutts must have ordered this behind his back. He never would have agreed to use a thermonuclear device if he had known. He was tricked by the Hutts to lead this raid. Enraged Kalin slammed his fist into the wall, leaving a small dent.

“Get us out of here now!”, Kalin started mumbling to himself in Mando'a in anger.

The city was completely leveled. This was supposed to be a standard raid, small time destruction. Not only was the city destroyed but dozens of his fighters that were close must have been destroyed in the blast. The Hutts would hear from Kalin about this, he didn't like being in the dark. The task force began to turn away from the planet, plotting their course for retreat. The remaining Starfighters would able to link up with the vessels before they managed to jump but it would be close. One of his Malice gunships exploded as a MAC round punctured deep into the ship. It had taken sever damage, Kalin wondered if it would make it out of here. The defense fleet was now near. Their barrage was taxing their shields to the limit. A few more moments and they would fall.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

The dogfight above the skies of Balmorra’s capital raged on. This battle had soon erupted into a storm of mangled steel and explosions. Fighters on both sides were taking hits, and as Kav took evasive action above the city, downed fighters plummeted toward the city streets and buildings. Kav’s squad had already lost 2 pilots, and he imagined the situation was the same for the rest of the squads.

“Get into defensive formations damnit! We are only trying to delay them, not go down with them!”, said Kavrin over the comm.

Kavrin adjusted his heading towards the outskirts of the fight, where things were less intense. He took the opportunity to look around the city, and decipher how things were going. As he and his squadmates drifted through the city, missiles fell from the sky, and striking the ground. There was a flash, and Kavrin was temporarily blinded. The noise from the ensuing explosion was greater than Kavrin had ever heard. He could feel his starfighter being pushed away from a shockwave. His vision quickly returned, though not nearly at 100 percent effectiveness for now. Looking out of his cockpit, he could see that the capital was in ruins. Dozens of Taung fighters had been lost above the centerpoints of the explosions, and many others were badly damaged or barely flyable.

His own fighter was no exception, there was fluid coming from the rear of his vessel.

“WHAT THE ****!”, yelled Kavrin over the comm. channel.

Kalin was sure to have heard him, and Kavrin wondered if his commander’s disgust for what had just happened equaled his own.

“All squadrons, return to the fleet, we are getting the hell out of here. I repeat, all squadrons, link up to your home vessels, we are retreating.”, said Kav.

The Taung fighters turned spaceward, heading at top speed for the capital ships. More fighters were lost as the Taung retreated to their ships, but they finally made it. After setting down inside the hanger, Kav jumped out of his ship and inspected the damage he had taken. The fuel cell. He had only had about a minute of power left.

After inspecting the ship, Kavrin began to storm his way to the bridge, filled with a longing for vengeance over what had just happened.

 

[Cailst]

A decent bit of damage had occurred in the capital. A suburb of Bin Prime had been flattened for the most part. Huddled in the hills, most buildings were blown away and a bit of the hill was blasted. However, the blast did not extend beyond the valley very much. The hills had absorbed much of the blast. Within minutes, rescue workers would go in to save any of the survivors. Within hours, the clearing of rubble would begin to ensure that people could move back in sooner rather than later. And within days, rebuilding would begin.

Meanwhile, the narrow hole which Taung ships had descended through was now heavily targeted by MAC guns and other anti aircraft weapons. As Taung fighters were retreating, atmospheric fighters were following them as best they could, perhaps to even board the gunships if the opportunity arose.

In space, the Republic fleet around Balmorra was above the narrow hole in the minefield where the Taung had descended from. Now at close range, they could truly unleash their fury. Added to that, Taung ships would have to pass through their formation to get far enough away that they could escape the gravity well of the planet and escape.

 

[Jiang Winters]

ADMIN: WHOA, full stop. The use of WMD's or any other massively destructive weapons, such as nukes or full-scale orbital bombardment, is STRICTLY forbidden by the SWRP's rules when used against a planet.

 

[Santoro]

The combined Hutt Fleet began to pull away from Balmorra, a majority of the crewmen glued to viewports and screens to survey the damage. It was catastrophic.

"Did you see that?" a senior sensor officer aboard the flagship gasped, slumping back in his chair. Thousands upon thousands of beings would surely have died from the barrage, and the extensive bombardment's superheated air ran the potential of damaging the ecosystem in the short term. He ran his hand through his hair, trying to refocus on the rapidly changing battlefield. In tight clusters the Imperial Fleet began to retreat from the planet, leaving their handiwork in their wake.

Elsewhere, starfighters scrambled through the chaos of the remaining planetary defenses, primarily starfighters and the occasional flak cannon. At top speed they managed to dock with their still-accelerating motherships, fighting against the lessening pull of gravity as they propelled towards hyperspace.

"All ships, lock in hyperspace coordinates to your pre-set rendezvous points. Random jump twice before meeting at RV Beta."

 

[Cailst]

While emergency services on the ground began moving to deal with the small suburb that was more or less devastated, the rest of the Balmorran defenses were still functioning as normal.

On the ground, the remaining anti-air fired at the fighters still hurrying to meet their mother ships. MAC guns fired up into the sky in order to hit the retreating ships. As they were at top speed and going up, there was no challenge to hitting the Taung ships. After all, MAC projectiles were still far faster than ships which had to be constrained by forces which life forms could endure. Also, since the Taung were moving in a straight line up, hitting them made shooting fish in a barrel look hard.

Atmospheric fighters similarly followed the Taung fighters up into the atmosphere till they reached their limit. Similarly, with Taung on such straight trajectories, it would be easy pickens for any shooting at them.

In the orbit around the hole in the minefields, Republic defenses were gathered to finish off what remained of the Taung fleet. Whatever emerged from those minefields would likely be hit with the full arsenals of a dozen or so capital ships at point blank range. To escape such a holocaust would either entail making a different hole in the minefield far away or to have the force guiding and protecting them like no other.

 

[Santoro]

The suburb that was city sized ((we're still allowed to bombard the city, just no nukes- enough missiles can devastate a city) burning in the Hutt fleet's wake, the vessels continued their violent missile barrage through the minefields, cutting their own swath further away from the clustered Republic fleet. With virtually limitless escape vectors, the Hutts splintered through the mines, blasting their way through and opening paths to hyperspace.

"Ships, jump when ready."

One by one, the fleet leapt to their preset coordinates, to jump again, and again, finally rallying at the mysterious Rendezvous Beta.