FC - Flying Straight

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

This was... odd.

Castor had to say that he had never thought that his life would take him in this kind of direction. He wasn't anything special as a pilot and yet here he was in his shuttle, about to do something incredibly stupid. He had bundled the daughter of the mechanic up and sent her on ahead in a nondescript shuttle but one of the things that he required for his IFF Spoofer to be of a high quality was a copy of Imperial codes and signals.

The type that could be found on an Imperial vessel of some size or importance - the corvette directly in front of him, ready to gun him down for daring to steal away the local crooked official's favourite bed warmer, was one such ship.

The two fighters that were accompanying the damn thing was irritating but they were nothing compared to the corvette itself.

Thankfully he wasn't alone here either - more allies had materialise when he had asked for them and suddenly he wasn't alone in the sky and he wasn't going to be in this fight alone either. Taking a deep breath, he gripped the controls of his shuttle, monitoring the shuttle with the daughter in it as it managed to escape to lightspeed.

"Precious cargo is away."

Strapping himself in tight, he seized the controls of his ship with steely resolve.

"Our objective is to destroy the corvette - once that's done I can mine it's data easily." he repeated to his 'squad' before pausing, "... may the Force be with you."

It sounded like a good, Jedi, thing to say.

@Kayenta Moenkopi @Cazar @Wit

 

[Pho Gorcru]

Flying starfighters had never really been on Pho's list of desires. The Zabrak kid was willing to try anything but this seemed dangerous. His training had been rushed, minimal, and he had not paid a ton of attention to it. Now he was running support for someone out in the field already. This seemed a bit irresponsible, but Pho decided to try to make the best of it. Maybe it would be fun. Maybe he'd do really well somehow and make Aurora proud of him. Gross why would he want that. Pho shook that thought away. He made a quiet prayer to his RX/5 Starfighter and opened his comms.

"Yeah... simple... cool." Pho spat over the comm as he sped the ship up to catch up with the Jedi's ship.

He spent the first few moments trying to stabilize himself and get over without looking stupid. He believed he managed that for now but once everyone was ready things would fall apart quickly if he wasn't careful. Pho figured his best bet was to let the others dive into battle first while he tried to cover them. A quick glance reminded him of the firing mechanisms and how to aim. It felt simple enough for now. He just had to avoid a panic.

"Oh. And yeah. May the force be with you... or whatever." Pho said, feeling stupid suddenly for saying it out loud.

@Kayenta Moenkopi @Wit @Nefieslab

 

[Ner Giza]

The call came in while her astromech having been on standby was busy entering the last adjustments to the coordinates. Ner’Giza turned to her co-pilot to say, ”Better get back to the turret, Migs, and strap in tight”. The man, just a temporary replacement for Aurel whose talents were better used in other aspects of the mission, had already unbuckled and rose to trot down the corridor and man the aft lazer. She was seriously going to have to upgrade The Tempest Hunter’s offensive capability with some fire power she could man from the pilot’s seat.

99 bleeped alerting her to the completed coordinates and she made the jump to hyperspace. Winking out of existence, she re-appeared in real space off the portside of Volante’s ship getting her first sight of the Corvette and its two escort fighters. Holding position, his voice came over the comm with a quick directive, then signed off with a phrase steady gaining in popularity.

She didn’t quite know what to make of all this talk of the force being with you as it was her understanding that the Sith were the only wielders of the mystic power left alive. Naturally she and Aurel had discussed the Force and how it permeated all life; it was the focus of his studies though he hid it within a historical connotation if he mentioned it at all. She knew how much his research had cost him and while she understood and supported his pursuits, she didn’t really see the application of it in the least. The Jedi were dead, end of story.

She cued the comm once the channel was clear, ”Star Seven: acknowledged”. Keeping to formation she waited for them to begin the strike while the distance between the Rebels and their target decreased.

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alys had hoped to bring along more members of Star Squadron to respond to the call that had gone out from one of the members of the fledging rebellion she was now a part of, but for one reason or another most other members of the squadron was otherwise occupied. So it was just her and Nera, but others had also answered the call so they had a ragtag group that ought to be enough to get the job done. Besides, the two of them were probably more than enough.

They had been waiting for the go ahead from the man whose call they were answering, time that Alys had used to make sure that everything was in order and all systems were operating within acceptable operational parameters. When the shuttle jumped to hyperspeed she flipped a few switches and brought the engines up to power, signaling the droid that was acting as he co-pilot to prepare itself.

"Star one acknowledged." She was okay with just using a callsign, if what she had heard was true and this Castor was a former Imperial then she wasn't quite ready to share anything about who she was just yet. Even a first name alone might be enough for him to identify her, and she wasn't really ready to share that with everyone. People were begining to trust her, and she could only imagine what would happen if she started getting introduced as the Drast girl everywhere she went.

"May the Force be with you." She added as she had the Silverwing begin moving towards the Corvette.

@Cazar @Nefieslab @Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Time to go to work.

Castor immersed himself in the Force as he felt the controls and how the ship responded to him. Pushing the shuttle forwards, he targeted one of the two fighters that was to accompany the corvette. Leading his shots, he fired a burst of four shots at the enemy fighter and was very happy to see the fighter take three of the blaster shots, the third being what caused the fighter to explode in a fiery ball of death actually.

Of course this then meant that he was on one side of the corvette, which now had no fighter support on that side. The corvette was not designed for anti-fighter and small craft - it was designed to harass other capital ships. Because of that, Castor was able to avoid taking much damage though a few blasts were close enough to shake his ship simply because even his shuttle was too fast for turbolasers to effectively lock onto at this range.

Thank the Force they seemed to be killing the might beast with insects who bit harder than expected.

@Cazar @Wit @Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Pho Gorcru]

Training had prepared Pho to avoid fire easily. The ship he was in was perfect for dodging the corvette's weapons and he was too fast for the remaining fighter to hit. This was perfect for Pho. His nerves dropped a bit as he realized how easily he could avoid damage. He watched with wonder as Castor took out the first fighter super quickly. It inspired him to try to do the exact same thing to the remaining fighter. It wouldn't be so hard he thought. This ship had some nice lasers somewhere and even some missiles. It had to be simple enough with their numbers and inertia in battle.

"Going for the other fighter!" He said excitedly over the comm, ignoring protocols if there were any.

Pho's RX/5 accelerated towards the fighter after avoiding some pot shots from the Corvette. He fumbled though with the controls and was unsure why his ship would not fire. It was not until his opportunity went by unused that he finally pushed the button correctly. Unfortunately, they had turned towards his friends by then and now Ner Giza had a stray bolt heading towards her ship. It would likely be harmless but nonetheless it was quite the failure for the young Zabrak. That would be something to explain later.

@Kayenta Moenkopi @Wit @Nefieslab

 

[Ner Giza]

Breathing a sigh of relief when she heard Star One check in, she thought, ’There it is again; the force.’. Her eyes kept focus on the target, their pace making it grow in size before her rapidly. Hoping the Corvette wasn't carrying any more fighters hidden away just ready to deploy, she thought ’yeah why not? and also with you’.

Castor pulled away and suddenly she was all business letting thoughts of this sudden revival among the pilots go for the time being. For now she would just have to do her job and that meant lining up targets for Migs. She angled The Tempest Hunter to follow after Castor, letting the man in the shuttle be her forward guns. In return she would guard his tail while Migs blasted pot shots at the Corvette’s turrets. At least she thought that class of shuttle Volante was flying didn’t have aft lazers.

Now if only she could make a run close enough to line up her gunner it’d set up her temp co-pilot for the chance to knock out several of its turrets. Despite the mynock having a similar hyperdrive to the shuttle, Ner’Giza was hard pressed to keep up with the man, her banking maneuvers swinging a bit wider than his own, her turns coming a bit slower. The rebel had skills, that much was sure.

So far things were going well, she could see his lazer blasts darting through space until at last the fighter was hit! She couldn’t help but laugh, then heard Pho calling his mark on the other fighter. Cueing the comm she said, ”Good shooting! Star 7 going in for a starboard run at those turrets”.

Breaking off from the shadow of the Castor’s shuttle, she pulled back on the control and shot up over the explosion to place herself above the Corvette. From this elevation Migs would be able to fire along their forward trail providing some protection for the Tempest them pivot back around in the ball turret to strafe the Corvette as she retreated.

The starboard side was laid out pretty as you please, and now that the fighter was taken out it was a good old fashion run at the gauntlet. Just then Nine-nine started squawking and she yelled back, ”I see it, Hang on!” The Corvette started firing and she began evading the turrets without too much trouble working her way along the starboard side, but the droid went off on her again. ”What, Where?”

She saw the rogue shot coming in fast and veered off her run to avoid being forced closer to Corvette, only narrowly missing her ship. But her sweet position had been lost, the remaining fighter was between her and setting up an immediate return run. She began angling round for another pass to get lined up again. As a result, Migs was unable to prove his rep was as good as his deeds.

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[Alysanne Drast]

Alys hung back as the others flew in to attack the nimbler fighters that were protecting the corvette. The Silverwing was fast, she had already made some modifications to improve it in that regard, but the others were in ships better suited to deal with fighters. She on the other hand would best serve the team by focusing on that corvette.

So she waited till the two fighters were engaged, both to look for an opportunity where she could slip through to make a run at the corvette, and also be there in reserve if anyone needed a hand. Ultimately opportunity presented itself as she saw an opening through the ships and laser fire surrounding the corvette. Not restricted by just two dimensions, she went above the plane of the corvette, and once high enough flipped around to come down towards it from above.

"Star One engaging the corvette." Punching the ship's engines to the max, she drew all the speed she could out of them as she fell in a corkscrew towards the corvette and with the Silverwing's turrets locked in forward facing and slightly intersecting arcs, began firing once she was in range.

Dropping down towards the bow of the corvette, she flew continued firing as she dropped towards it and leveled out once a few hundred meters from the corvette and continued along the length of the larger ship, taking shots as she went. As she zipped past the corvette, she took a look at one of the displays on her control panel, noticing that she hadn't managed to do much damage to the corvette. She had probably flown past too quickly to do any significant damage. So she turned around in a wide arc and prepared for another run, this time going slower and being more careful about picking her targets.

@Cazar @Nefieslab @Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Oh they were doing well here!

The fighters were gone and already the corvette was under attack. Bringing his ship under his control, he bobbed and weaved through the fire that came his way as he came in closer. It was a hard target but it was distracted by himself and the other attackers and was designed to fight far slower ships than theirs.

Once he was in position, he opened fire.

Spinning as he fired to avoid return fire, his blasts slammed into the engines of the corvette and they flickered, the power no longer being connected to the corvette at all. He touched the com channel again.

"Alright everyone - let's blow this sucker to hell so I can dig through the records that are automatically ejected upon destruction."

Black boxes were wonderful things.

@Cazar @Wit @Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Pho Gorcru]

First pass had been a bit of a fail so Pho focused harder when it came to making the next attempt. He watched as others seemed to making short work of their targets. He refused to be a useless bit of backup for this. The Zabrak moved his ship in for a strike against the disabled corvette hoping to make a big impact. He fired lasers and launched a missile as he got to close range, moving the ship just in time to dodge the return fire from the slowly draining enemy. While the lasers duh into the hull causing some nice looking damage, the missile sputtered out and did a poor job of really breaking anything. It would take more damage to destroy it properly.

"Well... at least I helped..." Pho said to himself as he pulled away for another pass, unsure if he would be needed for the next pass at all.

@Kayenta Moenkopi @Wit @Nefieslab

 

[Ner Giza]

Despite the initial set back things were going well, the members of the attack squad were still intact. Aly called out her run, and she silently wished her luck as she pulled the Tempest around noting the fighter paralleling her path. The pilot charged with escorting the Corvette had been better served to keep an eye upon Castor for just then he let lose his barrage disabling the hulk’s power supply.

It was quite the score for it set their target dead in space unable to evade the four person squad. However, with its gunnery compliment it was hardly powerless to defeat them. Pho made his attack next but she was unable to gauge how effective the strike had been for she had her eyes set on the menace shadowing her.

She couldn’t delay further. Lined up as she was perhaps she could feint tricking the pilot into believing she was not going to risk the exposure to the gauntlet of turrets until shaking the fighter from her course. Calling over the squad’s frequency she said, ”Star Seven; going for its belly!”

Veering off path she dove as though trying to fly beneath the Corvette and pop up over the top like she had done the first time. The fighter altered his course to match her own and in unison they raced to be the first to come up on the other side. 99 warned her of incoming fire from the craft and she began fishtailing her trail to throw off his aim. Firing at her freighter, the pilot determined to bring her down, and yet she evaded as she prepared to make her gambit.

Turning the ship on its side, she careened suddenly toward the corvette turning completely upside down until the underbelly of the Tempest was facing the target. Migs was finally able to take his shots along the ventral side but she soon heard the gunner cursing as his blasts missed. ”Don’t worry about it Migs”, she said on her internal comm. ”If nothing else we’ll keep that fighter busy and off their tails”

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[Alysanne Drast]

With the fighters finally gone, everyone was able to focus their attention on the corvette, and larger though it may be, the corvette simply didn't have the tools to take on fighters on its own. Ships of its class normally had fighters of their own to defend against nuisances like them, and with them out of the way the ragtag rebel squadron had a much better chance of taking it out.

Whipping around after her first attack run, she came in for another pass, this time from ship's stern. But once she got close she was forced to avoid canon fire from the corvette. It might not be suited for fighting off smaller ships, but that didn't mean it was completely defenseless. It simply had to pick its targets, and with the largest ship Alys was the most obvious one. She weaved her way through the attacks, successfully avoiding any hits, but that also meant that her attack run wasn't perfectly lined up to take a shot at the corvette's engines as she had planned to. She got a few hits, but they barely hit, and didn't do anywhere close to as much damage as she would have liked. They needed a little more to get the ship out of commission.

"I think we almost have it, one more run and that thing's ours!"

@Cazar @Nefieslab @Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

The corvette was sinking and he was absolutely fine with that.

All they needed to do was strike hard and strike fast - once they'd done that they should be able to pick up the ejected copy of the Imperial codes and transmissions that would be sent out as per protocol. Time to get a run in!

Castor took his ship in for another attack run and due to the accumulative damage the ship had taken, the corvette exploded violently. Castor would have called it a clear success were it not for the piece of debris that smacked against his ship, damaging the shielding. Thankfully it wasn't enough to truly damage his ship.

It did, however, mean he lost track of the black box from the corvette.

"Kark!" he cursed loudly, "Can anyone track the black box? We need it's codes or this whole mission was for nothing..."

Well... aside from managing to destroy a capital ship.

@Wit @Cazar @Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Pho Gorcru]

Pho watched the Corvette break apart and was amazed at how they did so much damage. He heard the call for finding the black box and he knew he had to jump to action. The ship screamed as he pushed it into the debris field to find the device. Scanners were going and his eyes were peeled for a big black box. He tried tor each out with the force but found he could not focus to find the box that way. He was still much too untrained.

"I think I have something-" The Zabrak cut it slightly short as a piece of degree scraped the wing and nearly ripped him up. "Sith spit... ok I have it!"

His ship would need fixing but in the end he cared little for this hunk of junk he was using. It was assigned and not really worth anything. A little damage was to be expected. Pho would let the engineers deal with it when they got back. It was certainly a closer call than he would have liked though.

@Kayenta Moenkopi @Wit @Nefieslab

 

[Ner Giza]

It was kind of exhilarating watching as the Corvette exploded into pieces, yet she couldn’t just sit around and watch the roaring glow that filled the area. Pieces of the ship were winging away from the point of impact showering the area and she would have to get clear before she could let glee overtake her mind.

Her hands moved to the throttle giving the mynock freighter a quick burst of speed. Calling back to her co-pilot she said ”Hang on Migs. That turret likes to rock hard when I goose it!”. She couldn’t recall the number of times Aurel got the ride of his life whenever she had to ‘boot-scoot’ her way out of danger. Sometimes she had to wonder with all the equipment malfunctions she was suffering of late if 99 didn’t go around from time to time and remove bolts and short out wires.

Fully warned of what was ahead, the gunner didn’t suffer any permanent injury, the Tempest Hunter easily getting out of range of the large section of the Corvette. However a bit of the heavy ships communication array came scraping along the underbelly of her ship making everyone inside the craft cringe expecting to explode.

She heard Migs screaming and called out, ”Migs! even as she unbuckled her rig and took off down the corridor toward the ball turret. Making it to the portal of the turret she dropped to her knees and looked down into the gunner’s chair only to find the man laughing in hysterical relief. His arm shot up toward her and he said, ”Did you see that shit?”.

Ner’Giza did indeed and she couldn’t half believe how close a call it had been. The widow of the turret was completely covered by a piece of the dish that had gotten wedged in the rotator housing. She breathed a sigh of relief she pushed back from the man hole and sat back kneeling on the floor, ”Well that was fun”, wrapping her knuckles on the floor of the ship she said, ”need a hand getting up out of there?”

Before long both members of the crew were back in the cock pit and ready to begin the search when she got word over the comm from Pho Gorcru. ”That’s great! Star Seven standing by.”

Barring any other occurrences she should be able to make it back to base just fine.

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@Cazar

 

[Alysanne Drast]

As the Corvette finally exploded, Alys punched the accelerator once more as she pushed the Silverwing away from the exploding debris. Slowing down and taking a lazy turn once far enough from the explosion that she didn't have to worry about the debris, she began carefully weaving her way through what remained of the Corvette as she moved in closer towards where the corvette had been.

Coming in close, but not too close, she brought her ship to a stop a safe distance from the main debris field. Her ship was way too big to maneuver the field and wouldn't be particularly useful in the search for the blackbox. So she drifted in space and waited as the others searched for the blackbox.

It was not long before Mig had what they had come for, and as Nera retrieved both the pilot and the treasure they had come seeking, Alys put her ship into motion once more and would fall into formation behind Nera as she began making her way out of the debris field. The entire encounter had been a good exercise in testing her abilities as a pilot, but maybe she might do better and do more in a smaller ship. Something to think on once they got back to base.

@Cazar @Nefieslab @Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

They got the data!

Four bloody rebels in ships of varying degrees of quality had managed to gun down two Imperial fighters, blow up an Imperial corvette and make off with it's black box? He would never have dreamed this were even possible back when he was an Imperial but now here he was, part of the reason why it happened in the first place!

"Great job!" he congratulated the team that had accompanied him on this mission, "Now let's get the hell out of here before they send up the rest of the planetary defence fleet!"

He keyed up his hyperdrive with the coordinates of their meet up rally point.

"Good hunting guys - see you on the other side!"

With that he would engage his engines to leave the area far behind, their mission completed.

/Exit
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