SithLore

Continued from https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/sithlor ... 10709.html

The Helix craft gave chase to the smaller Razor Starfighter, blue lances of energy streaking across the void of space. Ryder watched the craft not just with his eyes but with the Force as well. He kept pace with its movements while the droids controlled the scanners and weapon locks.

"Starry Field," the voice of the port authorities once again rang through the cockpit. "Stand down and return to your origin hanger or prepare to be fired upon."

"Can't do that sir!" Ryder once again replied, his focus being broken. "This is a Sith craft, he will show no mercy to me or your forces if I stand down!"

As the pilot's grey eyes retrained on the enemy craft he let out a series of choice words as the Razor entered into a split S maneuver. If his focus hadn't been interrupted he'd probably been able to counter the maneuver but as it was he was spotting it moments too late. Helixes were built to be better combat freighters, but at the end of the day a starfighter would always be more maneuverable. It was then that Ryder realized that the Razor was diving below his craft that he broke into laughter. His droids barely reacted to their master's change of mood, both focused on their tasks.

"Master, the enemy craft has entered the turrets' firing ark," Seven spoke saying exactly what Ryder was thinking about.

"Set to full power, unleash everything we've got," he ordered.

The twin Arakyd Plasburst laser cannon turrets began firing controlled bursts of crimson plasma at the maneuvering starfighter. The one issue with the maneuver the enemy had chosen is it slowed you down, making the ship's targeting computer's job just a little bit easier. While the guns were doing their designated job, Ryder began to also slow down and pull the ship in what could be call a U-turn in an attempt to stay above his quarry. With the Sith in such a vulnerable position, all he had to worry about was those pesky TIEs getting a reading on his ship.

"CE, jam signals, we can't let those fighters report back to traffic control," Ryder ordered his crimson espionage droid.

"Are we going to engage them?" The droid inquired as it set to work activating the short range jammer.

"Hopefully our Sith companion will take care of them for us," he replied. If he doesn't then there might be a bit of explaining to do.

Still drawing into the force, he kept on par with his new pursuer. The red bolts were raining down atop of him, screaming from the turret.

His shields were just recharged before those red blasts got to him again. He looked up, and had to make a decision. Dipping, and jinking hard, he barely remained untouched, his craft jerking periodically as his shield was pinged.

Whatever he did, he had to ascend. That turret would tear him apart if he didn't. If he did it at random, however, the helix could just match his movements, so he had to position the helix in a position that they couldn't, but HE could. That just meant getting Corran to chase him under a large ship, or maybe even the station itself.

Thankfully there was a large corvette before them, crossing their path ahead a bit. He jammed the throttle to full, and headed straight for it. Though that was the same moment the TIE squad reached them.

Four of them, two lead craft, two behind and above the lead craft.

Their unique engines screamed into the scene, firing war in shots in rapid fire. Their green dual weapons firing with their signature rapid fire bursts.

"In a bad spot here, RX. Any help appreciated!"

*"of course master. I'll deploy the scout droid momentarily to relay positions easier of all nearby craft."*

Dastan cursed. Only a few moments before he lead everyone beneath the belly of the corvette before them. His craft continuously spiralled, and dipped around all the bolts trailing him. When under fire, those moments were not a commodity. His shields would only recharge one more time, and this round was almost out. He was thankful he could use his combat sense of the force, otherwise he would surely have been scrapped.

So, instead of taking himself under the belly of that craft, he nosed into another corkscrew , before yanking his stick back, hard. Just a meter outside the corvette's starboard hull. His speed was impressive, but the TIEs, and likely even the Helix would be able to at least follow him in his quick change in direction. ThE helix, however may not be able to keep his razor fighter beneath it enough- unless of course the pilot was rather skilled in the force… that was a risk Dastan had to take.

"There's no time like the present, Rx"

*"Still dealing with the final TIE here. Once it's splashed, I'm afraid we won't have much time before something worse comes for us.”*

Dastan looked back for an instant. Caught glimpse of two TIEs over-shooting a bit due to their speed, going overtop the corvette before correcting and heading back to Dastan's trajectory. In That instant, though, he didnt get a second to check the Helix. He had hoped the other 2 TIEs remained tailing them.

Pulling a quick climb maneuver before winging over into a drop, he now saw the TIE fighters coming back up at him. They rapid fire shot at him, and he rolled, firing back.

Impressively, he pinged the solar panel wing of the first TIE, but totally missed the other. Though the damage done wasn't critical, it likely caused some problems, and Dastan would have a chance to focus on that one first…

*“Master, we are clear of distraction, SEP I'd working on getting that probe droid up to work sensors.”*

“Good. This helix pilot is problematic. I'm barely holding together. Looks like the council had a good reason to put him on my list.” He tried to speak quickly to keep his focus on his flying.

Just then, as Dastan was pulling into another set of endless circling and spiralling evasive maneuvers, his weapons reticle was able to pass over the smoking TIE, and he let loose his cannons. Red bolts alternated from his wings in quick succession, and the TIE rolled out of the way again. Though Dastan caught this, having been really drawing on the force here. Drawing himself into a hard braking yaw turn, he pulled a 180 to his right as the TIE passed over, and lit up its behind. That put him between his pursuers.

The TIE Dastan swerved behind and hit jostled, sparked theirvengine, and awkwardly rolled into a spiral before thd engine shut off, a wing popped off with a bright flash, and the thruster blew a round puff of smoke and debris. It careened away, still in its awkward spiral...

This was at great risk, as he continued to engage, as he knew he shouldn't have. The other Tie was following his wingman, which then put it close on Dastan’s tail. His response was to nose down immediately, and reignite his thrusters to full throttle.

It was an impressive light show, plenty of green, red, and blue lances bouncing about… Dastan’s shields were near depleted, he was tiring, but was not giving up. The anger, fear, and vindication in the space around him seemed to continually provide him the energy to draw on the force for assistance. Though it may have seemed like the fight was lasting forever, it had only been a few minutes at best. Surely not enough to tire either force user enough to cause issue.

This dogfight had taken them all around this quarter of the station’s docking space. Over, around, and between traffic- both large and small craft.



“got one. Need to refocus that damn helix before I'm toasted.”

He spoke to himself, sitting agitated on his tight cockpit. The terminal lights reflecting off his sleek helmet's built in visor and breather. The dim glow over his jumpsuit making the dark grays and blacks reflect the colors as well.

"I can feel him...."

The Helix continued it's overhead chase of the Razor, keeping it just within weapons' range. The Sith fighter shot below a corvette breaking the line of sight since the Helix wouldn't be able to dive fast enough to also go under. Instead the pilot brought the ship over the top of the bystander. As it flew over, two Ties dropped into escort position on either side of the Helix. Ryder shook his head, he needed to get rid of the them so they couldn't report back about his ship being an illegal model.

"Master, based on their flight patterns, these two TIEs are trying to steer us back towards to station's hanger bays," CE reported from his terminal.

"Understood," Ryder replied, he ran through his options and only one came out as a way to blame the Sith for the TIE's destruction. "Seven, take the controls and stay with that Razor."

"Of course master!" The RX unit responded as the pilot controls switched to his terminal. "But what are you going to do?"

"Get these TIEs off our back."

"How might you do that without incriminating yourself?" CE inquired, glancing up from its station.

"By doing something I always tell myself not to do."

"Ah, your unexplainable galaxy hacking," the droid spoke, reminding Ryder that it believed him capable of hacking the galaxy around them.

"Indeed CE, indeed. Seven, the TIEs are about to try and ram us, but will instead collide with each other." And with that Ryder took a deep breath and pulled away from his controls. He closed his eyes and opened himself up to the Force. His breathing slowed as his mind focused, cutting out the turbulence of the ship and the sounds of the laser canons discharging, he brought himself to be one with the Force. First he needed the strength to do what he needed so he stretched out in the Force, finding himself a meal with the fear and worry of the innocent bystanders. Ryder felt a surge of strength come from the dark side as he took those negative emotions and fed.

Now with the dark side fuel he opened his minds eyes to spot the two TIE Fighters that currently flew on either side. Hazy images of them appeared in his mind, the pilots emotions bringing a range of colors to Ryder's sight. With his prey spotted the Force user took another deep breath and released two red tendrils in the Force. The tendrils shot in either direction, heading straight for the two colorful pilots. The intangible tendrils bypassed the lightly armored hull of the fighters, slipped right through the black helmets and shot into the minds of the two Imperials. The tendrils wrapped themselves around each brain until they fully enveloped them.

Ryder's mind entered into a struggle with the two minds of the defenseless pilots. Their fear spiked and unfortunately for them it only strengthened Ryder's hold. 'Collide' was the order given. A spark shot down both tendrils like electricity down a wire and entered the men's minds. They both struggled for a moment before the TIEs simultaneously swerved onto a collision course with the Helix. From the outside it looked like they were planning on ramming the freighter but at the last moment the Helix shot forward and the two Imperial fighters slammed into each other, exploding in a ball of fury and shrapnel.

Ryder smiled darkly and his eyelids flicked open revealing his own bloodshot and jaundiced eyes, a show of how much he'd given into the darkness to achieve his little feat. As he pulled himself from the depths of the Force the yellow broke away to reveal a set of deep green eyes which only stayed momentarily before being replaced by his normal grey set.

"I see your hack went well," CE chimed in as it noted Ryder sitting back up.

"It did indeed CE," he replied, his voice almost unnaturally deep, before lightening up into this usual tone. "Where's our target?" He asked as he began to get his bearings. He looked out the view port to see they were now flying through the interworks of the shipyard. "Sithspit, what are we doing back here!?"

"You told me to tail the Starfighter, master." Seven drawled. "He destroyed a TIE and has retreated into the depths of this here shipyard."

"Probably best if you take back over, you are a better pilot after all," CE spoke, once again putting down the RX unit.

Ryder shook his head, if he'd realized that the Razor was retreating back towards the space station he'd have turned the ship around and made for deep space. "Fine, give me back the stick, Seven go back to guns and CE, keep doing what you've been doing."

"Yes master," the two droids spoke simultaneously.

The controls returned to Ryder and he brought his focus back to that of the lone Razor starfighter. "Ready or not here I come..."

That feeling, the pursuer becoming the pursued. . .

The force was a strange thing out in space. Normally you couldn't feel it like you could when on a planet, but it was still with you, tying you to the beings around you. This man he was after now for trying to release the asteroid mining field from the Sith's grasp- was confirmed without a shadow of a doubt a force user.

He could feel it- the manipulation. It was tainted in darkness...

Growling, Dastan understood. The helix pilot influenced the TIE pilots to collide! That instant he was reminded of the final Tie fighter, who was junking before him , attempting to get Dastan to overshoot. It was no use, the pilot's wingmate was down, and likely perished in the blast, and that was what was on their mind rather than disengaging and retreating. Swirling around in a corkscrew, Dastan put the final touches on this mess of a masterpiece. That repetitive beep of his targeting system went nuts with a rapid stutter of beeps before the lock was initiated.

"Goodbye."

The trigger was pulled, and the red bolts burst from the razorfighter's guns in quick succession. Direct hit- pinging the thrusters several times, the TIE exploded before Dastan, and he yanked his craft up in an immediate climb to avoid the flying debris.

"Now. Where'd you go?" Dastan growled into his helmet's mouthpiece.

I'll make this... Ryder... pay. The Sith want you dead, so that means 'I' want you dead. He found the man on his radar, behind him a ways, and incoming. It would need to be a quick dogfight, as surely the port authorities either had more TIE fighters incoming, or were calling for reinforcements from Imperial space nearby. You cross the sith- you have the unfortunate fate of dealing with 'me' now... I won't stop until i have what's mine... and that- is payback. These dark thoughts creeping into Dastan's mind allowed him to refresh a bit, and the distance between the two craft allowed Dastan's shields to recharge one final time.

Throwing himself in with the wolves, he'd not accept anything less than his own best. He inhaled deeply and peeked over his shoulder to see Ryder incoming.

It was a quick battle, Dastan lead the dogfight with Ryder on his tail most the way. Spiraling and jinking where possible, straying from the bolts darting around his craft. Just as his shields had been depleted by Ryder's well placed barrages- Dastan was able to leverage his craft's maneuverability and speed over his opponent's. He certainly wasn't more skilled personally, but his craft was more nimble.

Jamming hard on his brake, Dastan spun his craft into a quick loop that placed him in the aggressive stance on Ryder's tail. Firing a barrage of red and blue bolts, only a few tagged their mark. Though before tides were turned again, and Dastan almost overshot Ryder's craft, he released a guided warhead that quickly swerved to hit the tail of the Helix. A white ripple quickly bounced up the bubble of the Helix's shield before it thinned. He had almost taken the ship's vast amount of shield power.

Ryder in the Helix quickly recovered- not missing a beat. When Dastan shot the warhead, he quickly disengaged, slowed, and swerved off to create some distance. Though Ryder was too good to allow this- and matched Dastan's swoop- following him in blaster range.

It was a short stint, and the Helix put the sting on Dastan's Razorfighter. Quick blasts put some scoring across the tail, and disabled his wing's cannons. His engine began to smoke- and just before Ryder dealt a killing blow with a warhead- a gray blur crossed in and intercepted the missile before it hit it's mark.

Dastan's companion YT-2000 finally intervened, allowing Dastan's escape to open space. Having a near fully loaded and armed YT craft after a dogfight- even Ryder knew not to push his limits. Before more Imperial craft would make their way here to deal with the unlawful use of open fire in civilian space- Ryder allowed the distance between the fighters extend until it opened up for an escape route...