Clampdown

[Herrith]

"Hey, Bardok, we need a little help clearing the warehouse. Give us a hand and I'll buy you something nice."

Avlin put a hand up to her helmet as she blasted a smuggler in the face and ducked behind cover.

"Make it a mutilated teddy bear and we have a deal."

The slightest hint of humor was in her neutral voice, and she turned to the warehouse just outside of her window.

"Oh, and hold on. I'm about to do something stupid."
She backed away from the window and dove through, aiming her grapple launcher at the house's roof and more or less fastroping down the side, landing on a knee and running for the warehouse.

Avlin approached RNSF personnel gathered outside the warehouse (if there were any) and stopped, contacting Sukie through comms again.

"I'm waiting."

She ducked behind cover and did her best to shoot any smugglers peeking their heads out long enough for her blaster pistol to reach them.

 

[J-Wash]

Sukie checked the map, then called Tokarian for covering fire.

"Give me a minute, Bardok," she said, "I'll be over in a second."

Hunkered low, she sprinted out from behind the shot up door, behind a prefab wall, around a flying speeder, and finally across maybe ten feet of open ground to the doors of the warehouse. A squad of Starborne dismounted their car and ducked behind it for cover, waiting for the order to breach. Sukie, for her part, wheezed and panted, hands on her thighs, gesturing in combat signs at the door.

Behind them, a jet of fire erupted from the laser cannon behind them as a stay round ruptured something vital, smoke pouring from the gun's mechanism.

OOC: V. sorry for lateness, I lost track of whose turn it was

 

[Kaylon Neroka]

A headache was beginning to settle in Helia's mind, with the continual turns hitting her head left and right to avoid the fire of the laser cannon. It was nothing like she'd get during their simulated dogfights, but that thought didn't make it any more pleasant.
The sound of fighters passing one another in seemingly unpredictable patterns and directions had the cannon changing targets regularly, never staying on the same person for more than a few seconds. Its turning speed proving insufficient to stay on one target for any length of time. Each of her pilots were searching for weak points: Generators, trailing industrial-grade cables, obvious vulnerabilities in the armour of the gun. Each tried their hand wherever they could, firing a barrage of laser-fire at their target and hoping for the best.
Its surface was becoming increasingly worn, and signs of significant damage were beginning to show, but while it still fired it proved a problem.
Their standard fighters possessed torpedo launchers as part of their standard load-out, though with the intention of maximizing the speed of their strikes, they had only sufficient resources aboard to fire their torpedoes once, maybe twice, each. The problem wasn't in the capacity, as even a couple of torpedoes would do marvellous work against the gun. The problem was in readying the shot.
By the time a fighter could come in for a clear chance, they presented a persistent target that would draw the cannon's fire. She couldn't afford to lose anyone for such a risky manoeuvre, and firing blind could lead to unacceptable collateral. Instead, it looked to be down to laser-fire only. A death by a thousand cuts.

 

[Herrith]

"Give me a minute, Bardok..I'll be over in a second."

Avlin turned her head, weapon still trained on the doors, as Bathors appeared. She spoke as the commander of the mercs panted.
"Getting old, I see. That coffee's catching up to you."

Underneath her helmet, she was smiling, and the sentence carried an intonation of humor. More or less. As the mercs stacked up, she neared the door and spoke once more after an examination.

"Breaching charge. Thermite and a decent kick. You got one?"

As she said this, she primed flash grenades, letting her rifle dangle on its sling and holding one in each hand like a kid holding a pair of candy bars, but slightly more professional.

Knock knock.

 

[J-Wash]

Sukie coughed and grinned thinly up at Avlin.

"You just hope you look this good in eight thousand hours," she said. She turned to her sergeant, currently exchanging fire with a burning outbuilding. "You heard her. Breach the door, if you please."

A wordless grunt came from the faceless helmet, and he shouldered over and stuck the charge in place. As he stuck the dense blast-resistant cone filled with thermal detonators, Sukie had a word with Tokarian.

"How's the turret coming along?" she asked.

"Slowly, mum! We've got a team pushing up but it's slow going," came the chirpy reply. "The locals are dragging their feet up the valley!"

"Well tell them to hurry up! We can't hang about all ruddy day!"

Further conversation was cut off by the sudden implosion of the door in a cloud of smoke and debris, and the yell of Starborne charging into the breach.

 

[Herrith]

"You just hope you look this good in eight thousand hours. You heard her. Breach the door, if you please."

"Oh, I will look this good in eight thousand hours. That's what the mask is for."

Nothing like a good explosion. The Captain, Sukie, talked with another man as the charge went off. Avlin activated the IR filter on her helmet and took the role of pointman, shooting someone on overwatch as soon as she entered the room.

As other personnel flooded in the assassin fired her grapple up to a higher platform, landing with a roll and her pistol drawn, taking out people on the second deck as well as any smugglers sitting behind crates to ambush friendlies.

Avlin picked up a blaster rifle in lieu of her now holstered blaster pistol and continued sweeping the upper deck. She was confident the others could handle the bottom floor.

 

[Kaylon Neroka]

Jinking in the air the laser cannon had chosen Helia to be its target. Barrel rolls and sharp turns followed one after another as its laser-fire flew through the air like javelins. Both hands were on the flight stick, foregoing return fire just as she'd ordered her squadron to hold fire seconds ago.
The order had come as she saw as RNSF infantry were storming the tower from below. Any shot that'd pierce its outer structure could harm or even kill one of their own, and so they were brought to flying entirely defensively.
She was banking around as she could see the turn of its gun come to a slow stop and its fire abruptly ceased.
"Thanks fellas" She was smiling as she spoke on the channel to the ground forces. It would be the break her squadron would need to see to their other duties supporting the ground forces.

Moments later, the outer shell of the turret exploded like a metal flower coming to a rapid fiery blossom. Flames licked at the air and black smoke climbed into the sky immediately. Figures could be seen running from the blown tower in the wake of its internal demolition, and Helia could hear on her own squad channel the woops and cheers in the wake of the ground forces' handiwork.
They broke away immediately, each in their own direction to get the space they needed now that they were unopposed in the sky. It was going to be a lot easier for them hereon, and all would be listening keenly for Helia's orders, and her listening with eagerness for safe targets below.

A smaller explosion elsewhere showed as another building was breached, and Helia could feel only relief and pleasure that everything was coming together as well as it was, from her view anyway.

 

[J-Wash]

Sukie ducked into the smoke-filled laser show of the warehouse as the turret blew open behind her. Her employees laid down fire across the open space, advancing on the startled and fleeing smugglers and giving her the opportunity to slide in behind one of the large cases. She cut away at the tape and padding, pausing only to flinch as a body fell from the upper gantry, until she dug out the smuggler's merchandise.

Gleaming magazines and rifles stuck out of the packing foam. New ones, finely made. Not that the Starborne were hurting for small arms, but everyone liked something new and shiny once in a while. Sukie edged further on, blindfiring over her cover to another crate before digging it open to reveal a row of sleek metal tubes, marked with red. Her heart leaped into her mouth. She might not have been in the Republican Fleet, but she knew naval ordnance when she saw it.

"Spitting thistles," she whispered, stuffing the padding back into place, as though that would stop a blaster bolt.

She raised her hand to her radio, about to advise the squad and Avlin, when a figure in the classic long-tailed animal-hide coat of outer rim smugglers leaped over her crate and ducked down beside her. It took them both a moment to realise what had happened, but the moment of pause was fatal. He kicked out and Sukie's gun skidded across the metal floor, while the smuggler's own empty rifle clanged down as he pinned her, knife in hand, pushing it towards her neck. This occupied Sukie's thoughts so totally that she hardly noticed herself screaming.

 

[Herrith]

Avlin finished clearing out the top floor, sending a man over the railing with a smooth trip and a shove. She looked down and found the fight below to be going just about the same, except for one thing.

A crazy lady was screaming with a knife to her throat. Must be Sukie. She rose her sniper rifle and scoped in on the smuggler, taking care to account for the bolt's penetration and then firing, the blaster bolt cleanly cutting through the man's chest but exiting out to the left of Sukie's head, just enough to singe some hair. And possibly scar her mental health for life. Ah, well. The assassin quietly scoffed anyways before hopping to the ground.

"Top deck clear! Anyone else?"

 

[Kaylon Neroka]

The aerial flight was nothing short of a well-coordinated dance of aircraft soaring through the sky. As flares burst into life, coloured lights to all around, they came in a swarm from all angles. Fingers constricted around the triggers of the laser cannon controls and each fighter in turn engulfed targets with lances of bright laser-fire which sent plumes of smoke rising, and men hurled through the air.
The flares were well-placed, as much a visual cue for the oncoming fire for allies as it was for enemies and in that way they could control the direction of the enemy's resistance, breaking fortified positions and denying ground that would lead to the RNSF being flanked. It wasn't always lethal, but the flare would be more than enough notice for anyone paying attention to their surroundings. It was the air force's shining moment when they could support unimpeded, helping their brave counterparts any way they could.

Three targets became four, and then five, and so on. Letting smoke rise in the wake of their requested targets. It was difficult to see through the fast motions of their flight whether they were winning or it was still being contested, but the battle was well underway and the advantage remained theirs to press.

 

[J-Wash]

Sukie heaved the dead smuggler off and wiped some unnameable fluid off her face, stood up and took a couple of deep breaths, and finally picked up her carbine and hung it from her shoulder. She surveyed the mess further into the interior where the Starborne had cleared the rest of the defenders, smoke coiling from cooling bodies. Only once she had steadied herself did she radio through to Avlin.

"Bottom floor clear, thank you very much," she said. She switched channels, leaning heavily against a crate of naval torpedoes. "Helia, how are things looking out there? We've cleared the main warehouse."

 

[Herrith]

Avlin walked around on the bottom floor, venting her rifle of heat before turning on her heel and nodding to Sukie as she radioed in to the air forces. The assassin walked towards the Starborne leader and spoke.

"Thanks for the help. How goes the sky?"