Shadows over Nazzri

[Rhoden Carbine]

"Fall back." Rhoden said, sending fire at another X-Wing as he decelerated. The shields caught all but one shot, the last one tore straight through the cockpit and the fighter went into a nosedive without a pilot. He made a crisp turn and began heading back towards the capital ships with the rest of his fighters.

"Report." he said, "One dead, three fighters down, our pilots have been recovered." Rhoden sighed. It was like shooting fish in a barrel with a disruptor rifle. Then again, the engagement had been rather brief, and admittedly the Interceptor's had been given considerably more trouble.

[Shayrina Tarthus]

The Wing Commander's helmet clicked with the unfamiliar voice again, advising their course of action to 'get out of there'.
["Mobius- this is commander Remn of the Starfighter Corps. I'm not clear on your meaning- We have nowhere else to go- this is an Alliance outpost. I'm also unclear on who you are despite your designation- but that's a negative. COC says to see this Transport in."]

Her communications were chaos for a moment as the AA guns fire was about in range, and they saw that Transport near home. The skirmish was about to be done, but the passing of time felt as if it were marked by heartbeats. Every detail in slow motion.

"King: belly-up and take cover around that transport-" Shay barked as she attempted to keep her A-Wing flying after sustaining some TIE fire. King was her wingmate and she was having a hard time keeping watch over him. She watched her Twi-lek buddy get chased down in a hail of green bolts.

["I can't get him off- "]
["Indigo 5, disengage!"]
["This is Zapper: King- bring him around 180 and I'll take care of him!"]
["He's got lock-"]

"I'm engaged, but coming around for a pass- hang in there!" Shay chimed in as she took another bolt to the stabilizer, shields nulled. Her fighter was now looking at a TIE interceptor chasing down the twi-lek, 'King'. She needed to swat his following interceptor.
["I'm almost there I can see ya'."]
["Frack, tagged one but I've picked up a tail. I'm out. Indigo 3 get in there!"]
["I'm taking him up- and i'll bring him right back down into your line of fire, Indigo 3,"]

The X-Wing, and the TIE Interceptor swirled around in an upward spiral before leveling out and swooping back down toward the planet. Shay swung up to the now- falling Interceptor, and just as she got into range, she pulled the trigger on her cannons as if came toward her- sending a few red bolts toward that Interceptor to give it something to think about. Hoping to force it off King's tail.
"That'll show 'em!" Shay whooped-
["Great shooting Indigo 3- I think he's-"]
At the same time, her A-Wing took a final bolt by a passing TIE- though she was unaware of it's origin. One of her engines began sputtering.
"I'm hit" she snapped before radio silence as everyone watched-

Her attempt at sending that Interceptor away from King succeeded, but not before it got it's shot off. The Interceptor launched a missile and swung to disengage as red bolts passed it's canopy. That missile tagged King's X-Wing right near center mass with an expert shot. A black cloud of smoke erupted in a flash with white smoke trailing streamers of parts.

Over her beeping dash she could hear the dense 'pop', and she looked over her shoulder - through her engine's smokescreen and saw what looked like a drooping black star-shape. The smoke formation that used to be an X-Wing, and it's falling debris.

Voices were heard over her radio but nothing she could understand for a moment. Maybe her helmet malfunctioned. Maybe it was her fighter's comm system. Maybe it was adrenaline or shell-shock. She didn't know- all she knew is that her Fighter was barely listening to her, and that her wingmate may be dead.
-Okay buddy where's your chute? I don't see a streamer. Where is it?- she thought repeatedly as she looked around the cloud in a panic.

["Where's the chute? Where's the chute?"]
["Anyone see him eject?"]
["Oh man, King, where's your damn chute?!"]
["We'll find him."]
[" I didn't see it, anyone see it?"]
The other members of Indigo squad were spaced out randomly around the Transport now, seeing it in now that the Empire's ships peeled away.

["Indigo, RTB immediately. Looks like the Empire's peeling off. Indigo 3 take your bird in, you're trailing smoke."] was what shook her out of it.
"Yeah I took some heavy fire-" she replied before white-hot streamers tore across the sky. A volley of rockets incoming from the destroyer-
["Wait what -?!"]
["No-no, no no no, they're not letting that transport go so easily-"]
["That thing's got shields, right?"]
"Can we intercept?" Shay asked quickly, trying to fight her control stick to stay level.
["Negative Indigo 3. Those things are way too fast. Evasive action! Get outta' the blast radius!"]

Maybe somehow Neive knew this was going to happen, and why he was trying to warn Indigo about- when saying 'get out of there', maybe he meant to vacate the area around the transport. Though how he would have known, none of the fighters in their seats could have figured..

[Neive Undant]

Experience was everything, that's what Neive had been taught. Whether on the battlefield or in the line of regular labor, experience was everything.
But more than that, Neive knew the empire. Neive knew they would try several tactics to reach their goals. The fighters had failed, he just didn't know how they would give it another go. And when he saw the barrage of missiles... he knew. If they couldn't destroy the transport, they would take down the whole damn facility.
Neive looked to the transport as he came back around, the missiles soaring to it.
"Indigo squadron... there's nothing we can do. Peel off before the missiles reach you. If they're seekers, keep them off one another."

That's all he could manage to get out as they approached. The students didn't need a voice in their ear when they evade. But for the soldiers in the transport...
the helmet's voice distorter activated.
" Nu valia nenx tegu savimi mrias... "
The comm was open, but the words were most likely lost to the students, though they were lost to Neive as well.

Neive's ship shot forward, sending a barrage of red laser bolts into the group of missiles. Although not even half of them were destroyed, it gave a small hole as the transport moved behind the shields. Neive's ship moved up and out of the way of the barrage before the thrusters slowed, and the ship slowly moved to a nose dive. For just a moment, Neive's comm was nothing but static before he finally returned, his ship leveling out not far from the ground. Neive muted his comm before he made his way around, looking back to the missiles as they moved towards their target.

[Professor Mors]

Panicked enemy transmissions fluttered through the communications terminal of the Reverent, as the rebel ground forces scrambled to address an attack that would not arrive. If the dogged fear-mongers thought that Doren had an intention to assault their pitiful camp, they would soon discover the depth of their presumptive foolishness. Indeed, at the angle the missiles had launched, only one or two posed any coincidental threat to their structures, and if they failed to detonate against the enemy fighter patrols, they would merely graze the hillside at the far end of the complex in a worst-case scenario. "Do we have a reading on those enemy signals?", Vassyl inquired anxiously, to which a nameless staff member called back, "Negative Sir, the distortion from the warhead is complicating the readi-". The young lieutenant was summarily interrupted by a chirping console, prompting a second response, "Correction Sir, the rogue transport has just cleared the blast radius".

"Fierfek", the Captain muttered under his breath, as he strode from the center of the command dais over to the primary weapons terminal. "Ensign DeMarlo", Vassyl softly addressed a younger red-headed woman seated at a larger technical computer, "Our window for retrieval has closed. We cannot allow that freighter to deliver stolen cargo, do you understand?". The petite officer nodded hesitantly, and cross-examined, "I don't know that we can get a solution fast enough Sir". Bending over, Vassyl plastered a hand on the back of the operator's chair, and softly continued, "You will fire manually". The weapons tech looked back with an incredulous expression, and Doren calmly maintained, "Utilize the bow turrets, one class-one turbo-laser should manage". The young lady gave a slight nod, and hurriedly set about her work, her superior's gaze remaining locked on the terminal HUD.

"W-weapons ready Sir", DeMarlo sputtered, inspiring a reassurance from Doren, "Fear not Ensign. One ship, one shot, right down the middle of our sights yes?". "Aye Sir", the weapons officer replied, a steadier tone in her voice. "Very good Ensign", Vassyl added, "I shall direct you, on my mark". With an imperative gesture, Doren leveled a gloved finger at a distant red blip on the scanner readout. Taking a deep breath, the Captain watched as the digital rendering of the bow turret began to angle itself towards the far flung target. Were that the bridge staff had only to deal with a frigate or larger, such delicacy would not be needed. Nonetheless, for so small a target, exacting precision was needed, and perhaps even a touch of intuition. Doren's crew was by no means the best trained or most experienced, but the men and women of the Reverent were nothing if not persistent. At last, a green reticule flashed across the screen, and Vassyl hoarsely whispered, "Fire".

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden observed the volley, making quick calculations, he knew that the Captain wasn't aiming for the base, and he knew also when the transport was clear of the estimated blast radius. Which left only one option to the Captain. He would not let stolen goods escape him, but the transport could not be captured intact at this point, they would have to blow it out of the sky.

Rhoden clicked on his comm, "We'll have a window of time to hit those fighters before the ground emplacements can target us again." Rhoden said coming about and speeding towards the formation quickly. A turbolaser blast stabbed out and towards the transport. Not so accurate to be a targeted shot, but accurate enough that it would connect unless the transport conjured up a new shield generator.

The fighters had moved clear of the transport, and were still doing so when Rhoden made his approach. He saw his first victim look up in horror as he realized what he had missed in his concentration and then he was gone in a blaze of light and debris. Another fighter tried to break and evade, but Rhoden simply spiraled his fighter and hit the unfortunate ship with ion cannon fire. It tumbled from the sky lifeless, the pilot trapped inside unable to eject. Rhoden keyed a missile lock, staying with the hostile the entire way, and firing as Dot beeped lock confirmation. Between the rest of his allies this left one A-Wing, one damaged, beat down A-Wing.

Rhoden sighed, "Should've slept in, kid." he muttered to himself. He triggered a single shot which shorted whatever might have been left of the ship's engines and curved around sharply looking for the Trilon, it had to be lurking nearby. "Pull out, get back to the Hydra, but keep an eye out for hostiles, they're out there somewhere." Rhoden realized he felt a kind of sadness for the pilots. They may have been traitors, murderers, and hostiles caught up in battle, but they had stood no chance. And he had killed them, without much thought as to the implications of what it was to end a life. He'd known for a long time that he had become desensitized to death, but there were moments when it shocked him still, but his work was far from done. Even once the rebellion was cleansed from the galaxy there would be more threats still.

[Shayrina Tarthus]

[Straight killing 3 named npc's and downing my ship with no option of rebuttal? I'm cool with it because I mentioned wanting to down them to you already- but 'easy, tiger', at least give a chance for rebuttal.]

Enemy fighters had retreated to the carrier hangars- and the Destroyer then launched several missiles - spinning toward the fightercraft playing escort. But- One of those squads heading back to the Destroyer swung back their way.

One-by-one in slow motion, Shay watched the missiles detonate as she started guiding her A-Wing down toward the landing pads since her fighter was sputtering as it is.

One large white trail stopped mid air in an orange blast. One of her friendlies wiped- Indigo, but not her flight. By the look of the falling debris- it was a leader's X-Wing. Another canopy she didn't see- must have been a straight kill.

Another missile barely missed her flight leader- trailing off into the distance with a late 'thunk' on the distant hillside.

Another swirled past and detonated in that same hillside.

More shouting was heard over the radio.

The ground was coming, and her gear was giving dash error lights- so she attempted to put them down now- so that they wouldn't jam up later. A loud clank, and the hum of her gear dropping was a slight comfort. Her gear down- she broke hard to slow her descent, looked over her shoulder one more time at the fight above. Her brow furrowed-

The Destroyer fired a single heavy round at the transport- engulfing another of her friendly fighters in a green stream- and hitting the transport's shield. The sound was immestakeable- a loud shriek of cannon fire and the bassy crash of it striking the transport's shield. The round wiped the transports shield completely- and blasted into the hull- but it should have punched through... Looks like whoever took the round diverted at least some of the energy incoming toward the ship.

She then saw that a single TIE came in fast and near immediately wiped out the rest of her flight. Despite the training, talent, and skill of her friendly pilots, they were dropped in near a single sweep. She didn't see if they got out or not. Her own ship took a final barrage, silencing her starboard engine.

The ground kept coming up to her as she went for a landing. Her ship rocked with clanking beneath her- the landing was faster than normal. A hard landing but not enough to do serious damage to her gear. Instantly her canopy rocketed open and she fussed with the seat's restraints before tearing them away in a fit of panic trying to get to her feet-

The sight was awe-inspiring. Her stomach sank and throat tightened.

Gray clouds dotted the sky where enemies and friends had been shot from the sky. Trailing smoke stretched from the ground here and there from downed craft, and explosions on the landing bays the imperials hit. Fire squads running to and fro. Emergency crew and infantry alike running about the madness. She then tore her helmet off- she didn't want to hear it any more. She knew her new friends had to be dead.

Shay stood in her cockpit, looking back up at the Star Destroyer, and the Transport now landing in a recessed bay toward the end of the airbase. The shadow it cast today would be something that stuck with her forever. This was her first combat experience. To be fair- it was something everyone in the military prepared for- but experiencing it for the first time did not sit well with her. She had been deployed a handful of times when she was a scout- but never saw combat.

This was her final step before graduation with the Alliance Special Forces. She completed her selection, SERE, Q-Course, and just completed assignment to Fighter Squadron. But now what? Most of her squadron were probably just KIA there. She couldn't help but forget that- and scurried from her cockpit and bolted for the nearest cover. Anything could happen at this point- and she wanted to remain alive.

Gripping tightly to her helmet in one hand, her boots flew across the tarmac as fast as her legs could take her. It was running past a crew of greenshirts for a large open hangar door that she realized her teeth were gritted, and her fists clenched. Her mind was aflame with a new hatred for the empire. Brainless fascist pigs- she repeated in her mind. Turning around from under the hangar's canopy, she looked out at her smoking A-Wing, the silvery-blue skies peppered with black dots, and gray smoke clouds. The flat tarmac and landing pads were scattered with crew, carts, and trails of smoke reaching for the sky, drifting in the wind.

This aggression is over- fighters are retreating... now how will brass retaliate- if at all.....? What was in that transport the Imperials wanted so badly?

..... And my squadmates. Friends. Why did -I- make it over them? She knew some of them may have survived, but she knew some couldn't escape their fates.

[Neive Undant]

Once Neive made sure his ship was mostly intact, he followed the A-wing into port. He sat his ship down and pulled the iron helmet from his head, looking at the radar.
Not even looking at the battlefield, Neive could tell already more life was lost than needed.

He stepped out of his ship, throwing the helmet on the ground and punching the metal vessel he was in moments before. The metal slightly gave from Neive's physical strength.
"Damn..."
Neive looked up and walked towards the student. Was she the only survivor of her squad, he wondered? Had the others all been killed?

Neive sighed and crouched in front of her.

"Ind-"
Neive hesitated.

"What's your name, pilot?"

Neive knew he needed to be cautious, as just by a glance he could see the fear, horror in her eyes.

It was her first combat engagement. And if she was going to be a soldier, these things were part of the experience. She couldn't have these moments after every conflict... but if Neive could calm her now, perhaps she could be better prepared for the future.

[Master Buggie]

((OOC: If there is a problem, read and learn. This is a good resource for anyone, even if you're experienced or if you've read it before.))

[Professor Mors]

All fell silent on the bridge as the battered figure of the transport escaped destruction and began its landing cycle. Lieutenant DeMarlo wore an expression intermingled between shock and dismay as she considered how her overseer would react. The young woman began to tense up as the faint scratch of nails on durasteel furthered her concern, however, as she turned to look up at Vassyl, she was met only with a soft, genuine smile. "That shot was one in a million Lieutenant", Doren calmly began, "Excellent work". Without further debriefing, the Captain hastily exited the weapons area, and made for the main viewport, observing the aftermath of the battle below. "For such a small garrison, their skill was nothing short of impressive", Vassyl quietly commented, "Would that I had the time to meet with the survivors personally". Turning about to face his staff, Doren belted new orders, "Level us out again, we've done quite enough here".

"And the stolen refining equipment Sir?", Lieutenant Torbough cautiously inquired. "Most likely damaged beyond repair from the thrashing we gave them", Vassyl dryly answered, "In any case, we cannot afford to overextend ourselves: begin hyperspace calculations, and confirm that all our fighters have docked". With a stern salute, Doren's XO set out to accomplish the Captain's bidding, leaving Vassyl to contemplate the failed venture into Alliance Space. Failed? Logistically perhaps, yet the dogfight would undoubtedly yield a wealth of intelligence that could not otherwise be obtained. Knowing one's enemy was vital to any war effort, and the Admiralty had a nasty aptitude for underestimating rebel capabilities. Doren, for his part, could not deny the objective respect he owed the defenders, and the pilots that through their lives into the fray for a single ship. Amidst his meditations, the Captain observed the angle of Reverent arc heavenward, and attention drifted to the overwhelmingly cobalt hue of the afternoon sky.

[Rhoden Carbine]

OOC: Yeah, apologies. Tried to leave it open for some maneuverability with my NPC pilots, not too well, though.

Rhoden returned to the Hydra and immediately left for the bridge, frowning momentarily as a flash of silver caught his eye, but when he turned to look at it there was nothing there. He shrugged and walked out of the hangar.

"We're pulling out, the transport took the hit but wasn't destroyed." Lieutenant Commander Mercado said as he walked onto the bridge, "Damn." Rhoden glanced at the reports and visual feeds scrolling across a screen. "Hmm. Substantial damage. Even if their stolen goods still work I doubt they'll find them worth the price they payed."