| abstract
| - The command comes down to both Paul and Ranma that they are cleared for take-off. "Good luck you two, and Ranma, come back as soon as you're able. We'll be needing you I think." Paul nods, flipping his com and replying, "Copy that," before he turns his head back slightly to his passenger. "Okay Syndri, here we go..." He carefully manuevers his borrowed ship, highly conscious of all the ships around him and avoiding them. It takes more concentration than it used to. But once he's in the open he sets his thrusters and Ranger One lifts gracefully into the air, hovering there for a moment before pulling up and into the atmosphere. Kashyyyk has seen much strife these past years, then again for a planet so well-located and with its importance in the wider galaxy, that is perhaps not all that unusual. Even from a distance it is relatively easy to see what makes it so reputed within the galaxy, a green sphere to contrast with the darkness of t he space all around. The Republic's forces have been arrayed for the worse, they have ever since the years of the Great Campaign. Patrols are regularly sent out deep into the system and vessels all but expecting the worse. With the Empire having remained quiet for so long, the worse is being expected with the arrival of Star Destroyers by the countless. At first, the only ship seen was a lone freighter. One of the lighter sprint versions, though not an untypical sight in this part of the galaxy. It enters system, does a few scans then it's long-range communications come to life broadcasting spacial coordinates over a broad range of channels. A moment later, the ship, without another action fades back into hyperspace. A few short minutes go by before all hell breaks loose. Ships, and a lot of them, fade into existence, leaving hyperspace. The vast majority of the NSO fleet had been waiting only a few parsecs away, awaiting proper coordinates for the micro-jump into Kashyyyk space. It was a tactic that several of the older NR pilots may remember from when Axel Vichten had instructed their forces on the use of specialized tactics in strategic planetary strikes. As soon as the ships broke hyperspace, fighters were being launched from the Dark Presence (V2SD), Dark Embrace (INTC), and the Dark Offering (INTCRV). Among the other Capital ships present were the Dark Pioneer (DSV) and Casohav's Breath (DSV) along with a small contingent of Skipray Blastboats being led by the Boomstick, Axel's signature vessel. Broad spectrum Communications come to life even as the two wedge-shaped vessels (Presence and Embrace) begin launching what looks like over-sized missile pods towards the planet itself. Each of these pods held a squad of the Sith Battle Droids. "Republic Forces. This is Admiral Vichten of the New Sith Order Navy. Lower your shields, power down your weapons, and surrender to our might. You cannot win today. It is simply not in the stars." The communications were coming from the lead skipray. As the last of the Sith fleet comes into the system the gravity well generators of the Dark Embrace come online. With only a single interdictor at their disposal, it was not impossible for ships to escape system, but it would require a bit of fast running on the part of the fleeing pilot. It appeared that the NSO had come for blood this time, bringing the full force of their military to bare on the jungle planet. Stuffing her helmet down over her head, Ranma kicks the engines of Six to life and follows after Ranger One, "Roger that. I'll see them to the jump point safely and bug back down for air support." Flipping the comm back off she watches the scanner from the corner of her eye. Just as they break atmo', it springs to life. Flipping her comm to ship-to-ship with Ranger One she curses, "Kuso! Looks like we're a few minutes to late to avoid them all together. Get your jump ready so when we're far enough away you can slip out." Slapping a toggle on her control panel, she opens her S-Foils into attack position and makes sure her weapons are armed. Had the Sith had the element of surprise in this engagement, it really might not be written in the stars for the combined forces over Kashyyyk to win this engagement. However, neither fate nor the Force was on the side of the Sith. Well before they had arrived, the Sullustan Jedi aspirant Ikihsa Enb'Zik had received a warning from Kashyyyk of the impending invasion. It had left Zik scrambling, and he'd spent an incalculable number of hours trying to quickly coordinate forces to protect the Wookiee homeworld. Luke and Jessalyn had worked on the local defense fleet and called in the Jedi flagship /Refrain of Anshalar/, while Zik had coordinated the New Republic and had even tried to call Caspar to the fray. Unfortunately, the /timing/ hadn't been quite right for the sometimes-exasperating Caspians to join in. The picture just wasn't perfect enough for them yet. The Republic, fortunately for their own selves, had scrambled a response that had arrived not long ahead of the Sith fleet. Even now, the Audacity along with forward units of New Republic Task Group Vespa is deployed near the third moon of the gas giant Alaris, the closest planet out from Kashyyyk itself. Their commanders are in the process of transmitting orders when the Sith scout drops from lightspeed. "Arrogant as always," Enb'Zik shakes his head as Axel's voice comes across the waves. Through the Force, he takes survey of the battle lines as they currently stand and settles himself into the peace of his instincts. Keying his comm, Zik radios the Republic lead ship, "Audacity, this is Ikihsa Enb'Zik. Please note new designation and mark my IFF blue on your targeting computers. I'm awaiting your command, over." Maybe the timing isn't right. But then, there's something to be said about what happens if we wait and wait and wait for the timing to be right. Or perfect. That it can mean waiting forever. But that's one side of the coin. So the timing isn't entirely right, but she can't do anything about that. So before Lynae's flag can be moved to her new command board a Caspian warship she quietly rides along with Zik towards Republic space with the intent to ask if perhaps they might have a ship to spare that might need an extra commander to help. Perhaps she has one good fight left in her after all? The Unquenchable Flame seems to be the ship that's short a commander, a gunship of some breed that Lynae barely has time to review the specs on. She joins up with the battle group headed by the Audacity, the vanguard to protect this planet. One last good fight. It's a very good thing that Paul's borrow ship is a fast one, because escape is pretty much all that is on his agenda for today. Gritting his teeth, he keeps back the curse that wants to escape his lips as ship after ship pops out of hyperspace, lest he frighten the girl behind him. Hopefully the ships they encounter will be expecting them to attack, not rush by. He hates it, hates that he's running away rather than fighting, but he also knows that the package he's carrying is much too dangerous for the Sith to get their hands on. It's imperative that he break through and make it into hyperspace. Listening to Ranma, Paul replies, "Roger that, getting jump coordinates now..." But the Corellian also takes the time to ready his weapons as well, putting on a burst of speed in turn. The hurry was for naught, well relatively anyway, the Sith weren't already here and it seemed that they might have just beaten them here. Though for how long, Rasi did not know. As soon as they arrived, the reduced garrison here was warned of what was awaiting them and as soon as they arrived, their dropships were launched. And not a moment too soon it seems, settling back, figuratively speaking, the commander asked for a channel to be made to the Flame. "Commander, any last things or are we good to go on your end and how is the transition?", a good thing that the gunship's commanding officer had recently been injured. The Audacity, a refitted Marauder-class, simply goes through her preparations in silence. The rest of the forward element of the Task Group, some other corvettes and the biggest vessel in it an MC40. Fortuantely, heavier vessels are provided by the planetary garrison, the Valiant, an old MC80 that was recently reassigned from Second Fleet, anchoring the Republican lines. Ranma squints slightly at the number of ships dropping from hyperspace and then shakes her head. Throwing Six into a roll, she drops down infront of Ranger One, effectively placing herself between the ship and the oncoming fighters. Taking a deep breath, she slowly exhales and focuses on the task at hand letting herself ignore the rest of the fighters around the planet and paying attention to only those that decide they want to come after her X-Wing and the Mantaray she is escorting. Geared up, with flight helmet already in place, Rogue Two sweeps out of the docking bay of the Audacity. Settling into a defensive position in front of the gunship, Lance 'Wildman' Corbet checks over his systems with practiced ease. "Rogue Two to Audacity." he states, clearly over the New Republic comm system. "All fighters check in. We're ready and awaiting orders." A pause, and a secondary check of systems is had, ensuring all weapons are fully charged, and that he's not going to run out of fuel in the middle of the engagement. "Let's shove their show of force right down their throats." he states. And within the cockpit of his X-Wing, Wildman grins. Fighters pour out of the larger ships of the NSO fleet. It was a rag-tag assortment of vessels ranging from Republic A-Wings to CDU Z-series vessels to Imperial Interceptors. There were even a few older model Z-95a space superiority fighters amongst the mix. The Sith military force was full of older Imperial hardware and whatever they could aquire from the black markets of Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine, and Trandosha. "Spread out, converge fire on their carrier vessels!" Axel says over the NSO frequency to their vessels. His own ship, the Boomstick rotated it's weapons platform around, sending bolts of ion energy towards the MC-40. The three other skiprays flying his wing were doing the same. Turbolaser fire erupted from the Embrace, the Interdictor creating a curtain of plasma around itself to keep enemy fighters at a distance. It was the weakest of the warships in the Sith fleet, though provided a strong means of keeping enemy forces from escaping and their allies from jumping into combat too close for comfort. It's gravity well generators consuming so much energy it could only crawl through space while the lasers were firing. Bare seconds have passed in between Zik's offering his services to the Republic fleet and the excited wheedling of the R6 unit in the droid socket behind his new fighter's cockpit. Looking quickly to his scanner reads, the Sullustan blinks, "Got 'em, Beehive. Audacity, my charge just showed up; I'm withdrawing to sector three to provide escort." Enb'Zik's comm channels don't remain in one place long. He quickly ID's the X-Wing flying escort ahead of Ranger One and throws /Burning Heart/ into full throttle and heads their way. Setting up a pair of tightbeams, Ikihsa radios a message to his own Mantaray and the X-Wing, as well, "Ranger One, Ghost Six, this is Ikihsa Enb'Zik. Ident Sierra Foxtrot eight niner four five. I'm two kilometers out and inbound to give extra firepower to your escape. Be there in thirty seconds, over." Off the starboard side of the Dark Presence the heavily modified Interdictor Corvette, the Dark Offering powers up its engines to full sub-light speeds, following the wave of Sith fighters from the two large Sith capital-class vessels. Inside of the Offering, the Viscount Aknar Koth'lryi stands at the fore of the bridge, looking out of the viewport. He turns to the captain of the vessel as he points towards the MC40 cruiser. "Direct all fire on their support cruiser, Captain." As the order is given the crew go to work, targeting a variety of points on the vessel to weaken the shields all across the fore arc of the ship. Double turbolaser batters and turbolaser batteries alike light up the space from the Offering. As the Carrack 'Privateer' drops out of hyperspace, the unpolished ship swings itself around as the so-called 'Baron' Juran Reinzhiner sits on the edge of the captains chair. He looks down towards the viewing window as the crew buzz around, and he speaks. "Bring us 'bout. Ready t'Tubrolasers n'give em' a full volley. Don't focus fire. Give em' somethin' to worry about s'the others target." He presses his hands together, grinding one palm into the other as the ship's heavy turbolaser batteries begin to pour fire towards the cruiser and it's support, it's inaccurate fire sending heavy bolts in the surrounding area of the MC40 cruiser also. (speaking in Basic) Kirkland has never flown in a Z-95A. He had very little time to familiarize himself with its controls, with how she responded to his actions, what her weaknesses and strengths truly were. All the things a pilot comes to know after extensive use in a starship. He had been assuming he would be flying an Interceptor like he was originally assigned; to his surprise, he was transferred to the Z-95A Chimeara. Not that he's complaining: it's a much more advanced craft, with better weaponry, shields, and speed. He'd definitely survive much longer. He follows the rest of the fleet in, dropping out of hyperspace several milliseconds in advance of the capital ships, his viewscreen filled by the sight of the green, lush world of Kashyyyk, and the awaiting Republic fleet. The very same fleet he had been serving under months ago, during the Calamari conflict, as a soldier of the Red Brigade. How times change. "This is Chimeara. Roger that, Command." The orders were clear for his group; swarm the carriers, destroy them. Of course it isn't that simple. The fighter screen isn't just going to let him pass through. Accelerating to attack speed, Kirkland pushes the Z-95A forward, following closely behind Axel's "Boomstick" towards the MC-40 star cruiser. Much like the Dark Offering, the Dark Presence's engines power up as the vessel prepares to go to full sub-light speed, following in after the launched fighters and along side the other Sith Capital Ships. On the Command Deck of the Presence, Count Salin Fawzy is seated within the command chair, his gaze directed out the massive viewport as the battle begins to unfold. His right hand taps his fingers on the arm-rest before the chair slowly turns in the direction of those manning the weapons and then his right hand lifts, indicating to a section of space outside, no doubt the MC-40 cruiser, "Direct all turbolaser batteries on their support cruiser. Begin firing immediately." Once the order is given, a slight smirk begins to cross the former Imperial Admiral's lips as his right hand clenches together, "It is good to be back." From aboard the Gunship 'Unquenchable Flame' Lynae picks up the channel long enough to say, "Transitioning as to be expected, Audacity," and there's a fine thread of what might almost be labeled amusement. Isn't it odd how the universe tumbles us about like rocks, to be tossed against the sand and end up on some random stretch of beach? She feels that way right now, to be commanding a Corellian Gunship, of all things, into combat. On the side of the NR, volunteering no less, and facing off against the NSO. Tumbled indeed. She's still studying the specs and the weapons and armament, listening to the sporadic com chatter between fighters as the battle starts it's opening moves. She has time, precious little time, to determine where to employ this ships guns and precisely how, as well. "We need to stay away from that cruiser," Paul notes more to himself than Ranma or Syndri as he tries to assess the situation. He's grateful for the escort. A fighter pilot he is not! Following Ranma's lead the Corellian banks the AEC Mantaray away from the interdictor cruiser, pretty much in the direct opposite direction so as not to get pulled in by its gravitational well. "Coordinates for the jump almost done calculating," he informs the X-Wing in front of him, eyes sharp now for any ships that might want a piece of them. At the signal from Zik, Paul blows a soft breath of relief. Two ships are better than one and signalling back on a tight beam, Paul replies back to Zik, "Copy that. Thanks for the back up." The Defender's shields are peppered with fire as the first of the enemy fire catch it by surprise, the focus on his vessel unexpected by its captain. But the man has been in enough fights during his life that he knows how to react when an enemy's chasing after him. The MC40's engines flaring to life, and in that moment it shows how fast it is compared to its bigger cousin. The vessel quickly begins turn towards the left and outer edge of the Republican lines, hoping to draw the enemy with it as it goes. Meanwhile, the Valiant's powerful turbolasers are trained on the Offering, even from its range, some of the salvos coming close enough that they might threaten the cruiser. The Audacity for herself dives right on in, so to speak, accompanied by a pair of gunships on either flank, the vessel sets a course for the Offering, targetting solutions and priorities being given to its turbolasers from the vessel's fire control. "Ghost and Falcon offer up a screen for us and keep their fighters from us, Rogue, put those torpedoes to good use as soon as you got a target on that Interdictor." "Roger that, Burning Heart. Good to have an extra cannon around." She grins a little to herself and flips the comm back off once more. She assesses the situation for a few moments. Flipping her comm back on to the ship-to-ship, "Good to hear. Put as much power to your shields as you can. I'll worry about any fighters." She grins a little as she clicks the comm back off again. Looks at her radar once more, a little worried by the number of red blips it shows. Space around the other side of the planet erupts to life. More large vessels and their fighter escorts emerge from hyperspace. A mix of VSD's, V2SD's, and archaic Dreadnaught class vessels converge together. It was a tactic to attempt and split the Allied forces and do some real damage to their assets on the ground. Planetary missiles pour out of the tubes of the old Victory class ships, making their way towards the jungle planet. Darth Malign had given Axel full command of the NSO fleet this night, and Axel Vichten was in one of his rather rebellious moods. There were many things on planet the Dark Lord had wanted for his own, yet Axel's orders to the gunnery crews before the jump was set. They were to come out of hyperspace and do as much damage to the planet as they could before they were engaged by Republic forces. Whether that was one volley of missiles or multiples was yet to be determined. The second wave of Sith forces had arrived. While the capital vessels were moving into position for screening or planetary bombardment, a myriad of fighter craft were offering cover fire for their larger compatriots. As Admiral Vichten's comms come to life signalling their arrival, all he could do was smile. "Converge fire on their hangar bay," Axel says over short range comms to his wingmen. "Full power to frontal shields and missiles launch on my command." The ion cannons of the skiprays cease firing, and a shimmer is seen in the front of each ship. "FIRE!" he yells out, and a full volley of concussion missiles pour out from the odd-looking craft, zooming for the hangar bays of the Mon Calamarian Vessel. Meanwhile, the Dark Embrace, the Sith's Interdictor Cruiser, maintains it's gravity well field. Turbolaser fire spans out a bit as it's powercells are rapidly draining. To maintain enhanced shields and the interdiction field were taxing its power generators to their limits. Already, several batteries were offline. There was something to be said about heavy modifications to a ship of this class. "Offering, go into evasive maneuvers," Axel calls out over the comms to his personal flagship. He should have known better than to leave a damned Bothan at the helm. Everything in his gut had told him not to, even though they needed all the experienced commanders they could get. "Fighter wing Delta, move in to cover for the Embrace. Foxtrot, follow suit." It was never easy commanding this many ships into a battle, but it was an adrenaline rush that the pilot thrived on. This is serious business. Heavy, man. Whoa. And yet, practically bouncing in the seat not so far from Axel is Decrevi; golden eyes glancing over the strange, glowy keyboard with stranger glowy buttons. Her lips purse against the cloth of her veil as she taps her fingertips against them, eyes narrowing keenly as her tongue slightly protrudes in her obvious concentration. She glances aside to Axel, her brows raising, "You know what we need?" She asks him, her shoulders rolling as she looks away from him to the panel infront of her. Another few strokes are given to the keys, "Music." She hesitates for a moment, knocking on the console experimentally. This is taking time. Sigh. Her brows furrow as music apparently refuses to play. And so, she looks back over at Axel, "... Revvin' up your engine, listen to her howlin' roar..." She looks back to the panel, nodding to some unheard tune in her mind. At least, what passes as a mind for her. "Metal under tension, beggin' you to touch and gooo.." She leans back in her seat, taking in a deep breath. "Highway to the Danger Zone!" She howls out, "Ride in to th--" She pauses, her brows shooting upward as communications start to pop up, her eyes going wide, "Oh, hey! .. Fighters are in process of being launched," She informs, still nodding to the soundtrack in her head, "Damage control teams are being moved to central locations.." She squints, opening up the channel for the captain of her current ship to hear. '...keep that section off of them, it's hurt enough as it is..' Then it cuts out. She growls, smacking the keyboard. She huffs out a breath, "Lettin' the big boys know, boss." And then she does exactly that, repeating all that she's heard. The message is relayed from the Admiral via the communications officer onboard the bridge of the Dark Offering. The corvette begins to tilt to the port side taking several hits to its shields before reversing the manuever to allow the fire to be evenly distributed over the fore, and then the starboard side as it completes its juke. The Viscount grips a rail near the forward viewport and spreads his legs apart, bracing himself to keep his balance. He shouts to gunnery, "Shift fire from the MC40." He isn't about to fall for the diversion as it runs away from the front of the fight. The Bothan points to the Audacity, "Direct fire onto that ship." As the order is given, fire resumes in the direction of the opposing corvette. "Copy that, Audacity. Rogues, on my flanks." With these simple commands given, Wildman throws his throttle forward, sending his X-Wing screaming forward, his engines working double time to propel him as swiftly as possible towards the enemy line. Spearheading the Rogue ships, Lance Corbet sweeps in, zigging and zagging in an attempt to avoid fire from the varrying fighters and cap ships. "Let's punch through, boys. Time to take it to them." Chuckling to himself, the man presses the throttle forward even more, his aim the Dark Presence. Ikihsa Enb'Zik seemed to be turning into a collector of rare and hard-to-obtain ships. The newest addition to his fleet, already upgraded, turns out to be slightly faster than Ranger One and significantly faster than any stock X-Wing. In less than a minute, Burning Heart has cleared the intervening space and falls in slightly aft of the Mantaray. "Ranger One, once you've got your jump coordinates calculated, transfer them to me and to Ghost Six if she needs them. Also, be advised you've got an in-console droid pilot assist in that ship if you need it. It won't or fly for you, but it can automate some of the ship's functions about as well as an Artoo unit. I suggest locking your turrets into forward position unless you're comfortable fighting in 360 directions at once." Zik looks around, both with his eyes and in the Force, carefully watching for any ships that may approach them. He'd been apprised by Jedi contacts down on Kashyyyk as to Nighman's precious cargo, including a small Ghostling that had probably already seen more combat than she ought. While he waits for them to reach the jump point, Zik frowns and calls back to his droid, "Beehive, double-check the ECM. I might need it while I get used to this thing." It won't shoot or fly. Interest seems to be limited in the ongoings that surround the Dark Presence, and even outside of it. For the Falleen Countess has come to witness the events for one reason or another, despite the fact that she doesn't seem to be paying a lick of attention to them. Seated upon the bridge within one of the available chairs she comodered, she idly listens to the orders that continue to be bounced off around her. One leg draped acorss the other as her position is quite relaxed, slightly shifted to one side. The fingers clenched around a nail file which is finding its use upon the opposite hand's razor-tipped nails. A exagerated sight slips past Ssanyu's lips as the amethyst orbs flicker out across towards Fawzy then onto the Viscount before returning to her work on the nails. "Copy that Burning Heart," Paul returns, searching for, finding, and then flipping on the aforementioned in-console droid pilot and setting his turrest to the forward position. The Corellian really isn't comfortable fighting in any direction, let along 360, but forward he can manage well enough. Transfering his coordinates over to the X-Wing and Heart is only another few seconds, a small frown creasing his brow as he asks, "You two are just taking me to the jump point, correct? You're not coming along for the ride are you?" Getting safely to the jump point is one thing, but Paul doesn't feel right taking two capable fighter pilots from where they are needed most. With the volley away, Axel banks his skipray to the starboard side, the other skiprays follow suit. Soon, the entire wing of what are considered cap-killer ships are gunning straight for the Audacity now. The weapons platforms begin rotating around, bringing the proton torpedo launchers online. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet from the main fight, eruptions of flame are happening all over the vast jungle. Concussion missiles from the VSD's impacting hard into the planet's thick foliage. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of dense jungle were being reduced to cinders. One reason for this was to draw Republic forces away from the main Sith fleet, the other was a rebellious act laid out by the Sith's commander, a simple defiance to the Dark Lord, showing a bit of descension in the ranks. Back with the main Sith Fleet, fighters are rapidly giving pursuit to Rogue squadron, their laser cannons bringing the majority of fire upon the x-wings screaming towards the Dark Offering. There is a small contingent of Sith A-Wings that have begun to give chase to the Z-110, Mantaray, and Paul Nighman's ship, though as these vessels were considered less of a threat than the other warships present, the contingent was rather small and rather far behind. "They're busy now.." Juran mutters and leans forwards, bringing the console on the captains chair around, he taps on the screen a few times, pursing his lips. "New target. Corellian Gunship. Target n'fire at will. Full spread of laser cannon n'turbolaser fire. Make sure we grab s'attention. Full speed 'head. Swing us around in a circle, n' concentrate shields t'the exposed side to soak up any return fire." He grunts and waves his hand to one side as the Carrack 'Privateer' begins a hard circle to try and catch the Corellian Gunship 'Unquenchable Flame', giving it a full spray of laser-cannon and turbolaser-battery fire. (speaking in Basic) Ah, the thrill, the sheer intensity. Nothing quite like fighting behind the controls of a starfighter. One wrong move, one slow reaction, and he could crash into another starfighter, into the hull of a capital ship, or straight into incoming cross-fire. But Kirkland lives for this. His entire life has been defined by war. As Kirkland begins his attack run on the MC-40, Republic starfighters zip by, themselves preparing their own attack run on the Sith battle formation. Nothing he can do about it right now - it's the role of the Interceptors and A-wings to, well, intercept them and stop them. He has his orders, and that's to make a smoldering wreck of the MC-40. But then new orders flow in from the Dark Presence, and that's to change targets... before he even got a chance to open up on the MC-40. New target: Audacity. A much smaller craft, much more suspectible to the likes of the Skips and his Z-95A. Kirkland executes a quick course adjustment, spinning his starfighter around to stay close to the blastboats led by Axel himself. As the bloastboats unloead their payload on the Audacity, Kirkland is right behind them, following up with his own volley of proton torpedoes. It doesn't take a genius tactician to spot the Carrack pulling a tight 180 to spin back and open fire, and Lynae sings out the command to adjust the forward shields accordingly as the ship shudders under the first round of incoming fire from the pirate cruiser. Lynae knows the ship and the captain, of course, she knew it'd come to this. They'd had this dialogue, would she have to stand on the other side of a battle line? "Return fire," is said in a calm voice, that same sort of utterly calm voice that carries a hollow sort of emptiness, she knew it would come to this. The Flame maneuvers at her command, bringing the quad-laser cannons to bear while engaging full maneuvering thrusters as the Carrack is spinning about. She highlights the purported 'weaknesses' of the target vessel on one of the view screens, calls up firing solutions and leaves the gunners to do their work. Not many salvos is the one sent at the planet, several kilometres of the forests razed as their missiles and other such fire hit home. But, as with any fighting these days, to simply defend one side of a planet is quite shortsighted, and the forces that were kept in reserve are thrown into the thick of things. The Blue Reef, one of the newer vessels within the Republic arsenal, not that that is saying much these days, is in command of that group. Its turbolasers are directed at the nearest VSD while its group focuses on taking care of the other part of the second wave. The Audacity herself opens up on the Dark Offering, the first gunship that accompanies it peeling off along with Ghost and Falcon squadrons to clear a path towards the Interdictor they are targetting. Its gunnery personnel having long practiced coordinated fire with other vessels, the corvette and gunship's firing seems directed at inflicting the most amount of damage to the Offering's systems. Intent on overwhelming the vessel while its many activities are draining its power. The Defender continues its maneuvering, though its shields have begun to flicker on and off at several spots along the hull, its speed remains nonetheless quite high for a vessel of its considerable size. Its tactic revealed as from the far side of the battle, some smaller capital ships are directed at those Sith vessels who have turned to chase after it. Rogue Two continues to spearpoint the assault on the Dark Offering, the ships taking defensive manuevers by banking and spinning in an attempt to avoid the majority of the fire from the pursuing ships. Lance, meanwhile, zeroes in on the vessel swiftly advancing before them. "Let's introduce ourselves, shall we, boys?" With that said, Wildman depresses his trigger, sending a torpedo zooming in towards the Interdictor, the other Rogues following suit. Ranma chuckles into her mic, "I'm just keeping you company until the jump point. Then I'll be heading back to the fight." She grins a bit behind her canopy. Glancing at the radar she smirks a bit, "Looks like we finally have some company heading our way." Pulling the stick back on her X-Wing, she comes up so she is a little 'higher' than the Mantaray and kills the starboard thrusters, kicking Six into a flat spin so she is facing the other direction and guns it towards the oncoming fighters, "I'll keep them distracted." When the first volley connects with the older Victory Class vessel, it's shields give way almost immediately. It was the downside of having limited facilities as the Sith did. Explosions erupt along the surface of the vessel forcing it to cease its bombardment of the planet and struggle to get its shields back up. A pair of the old Dreadnaughts move in, bringing their heavy batteries to bare on the incoming combatants. The other VSD and 2 V2SD's bring themselves away from the planet a bit, slowly turning to offer a full broadside towards the incoming enemy craft. With the shields taking a beating, the Dark Embrace is forced to power down more than half of its gravity well generators shortening the field a large amount, and allowing the Mantaray piloted by Nighman an opportunity to jump to lightspeed if the man is ready. A long string of curses pours through the communications array of the Boomstick. "Embrace, full power to shields and thrusters. Get the hell out of system." The limitations of the larger ship seemed to overpower it's strengths sometimes, Axel thought to himself. The massive ship begins to do as commanded, all fire from the vessel ceases and it's shields go to full power. All gravity well generators also follow suit with the turbolasers, going offline. Its massive engine engage, and the ship slowly turns on a direct course away from planet, to where it is safe to attempt a jump to lightspeed. With a newfound bit of rage, Axel punches the throttle of his skipray to full, closing the distance between his combat wing and the Audacity. At least one ship of the Republic fleet was going to have as much damage as his own. A full volley of torpedoes pours from the overpowered vessel, and from the other skiprays in formation with it. This is the kind of combat the ship was designed for, working in a small lance to take down corvette-class and similarly smaller capital vessels. "Get on that turret," Axel says, taking a second to point Decrevi to the laser turret controls. "If anything flies at us, blow it out of the sky." Turning to the weapons officer the Viscount points out of the viewport at the oncoming fighters. "Execute Vichten maneuver." The Offering's Ion Cannons open up on the incoming fighters, followed by a follow of the Turbolaser batters directed at the fighters. To counter possible jukes by the fighters, a split second delay is added before the four double turbolaser batteries open fire all around the targeted area of the turbolasers, hoping to catch some of the fighters in their 'reaction'. Additionally, an invisible beams lance out unseen from the corvette as the tractor beam seeks out a pair of fighters that are in close formation, attempting to lock onto them and pull them together to their detriment. Turning towards the forward viewport the Bothan Sith nobleman watches the effects of his orders. As this is being done, he calls to no one in particular over the din of battle, "Status report!" An officer looks up from a terminal, "Shields holding Your Grace. Port side is at half strength. Fore is a bit better at 60, starboard is 75. Aft is 100" A smirk creeps onto the face of the Bothan as he thinks of what Axel told him about this ship....modified so heavily it has the endurance of an large Imperial cruiser. Quite. "That depends on how the battle is going, Ranger One. I understand you need to get back to Ord, and I'm prepared to follow you all the way in." Zik pauses, thinking and searching the Force for his answer, then shakes his head. He doesn't voice it, but his leaning now is to follow the Manta all the way in to the Jedi Temple and make sure that artifact gets where it needs to be. He's still considering that when Ranma's words draw his eyes to the scanner array. At first, he considers recalling Ranma to the escort. Those A-Wings are a decent distance away still, after all, and don't yet pose a threat. Then he decides to let her have them. "Ghost Six," he comms her, "Be careful. I've got to stay on Ranger One's wing, and that means I can't cover you! Contact Commander Cen and have him dispatch a second Ghost to your assist. "Ranger One, while she's covering us, you and I are going to make use of the upgraded sublights on these two ships. Unless those Sith A-Wings are heavily modified, they won't be able to keep up. Set a straight path to your jump point and have your onboard shunt all offensive power into your engines. Set your shields to double-aft. I'll hold off anything that gets close." Zik glances to his sensors one more time, "Looks like that interdiction field's giving us some clutter. We get up to full speed, I think we can get to our jump point in about thr-- hold on." There's a pause while Zik parses the results of the sudden change in the Dark Embrace's status. "Ranger One, something's happened. It looks like that cruiser's field is dropping. Get to full speed, and we'll be at our jump point in thirty seconds!" Still listening for new communications as she works at breaking the coding, Decrevi lifts her head as the man beside her speaks. She gives a curt nod without much in the way of speech. Odd, for her, from the way things have been. "On it," She moves to man the turret, oddly gloved hands coming together to crack her knuckles, ending with a louder pop. She flinches, "... that doesn't happen in the movies.." She murmurs to herself, shaking her hand quickly for only a brief moment. "You may wanna get some more folk on the communications, boss. It ain't gunna control itself." She points out, leaning in as she begins to scan over the displays to keep her eye on anything on its way. "Either find a way to listen in, or find a way to shut them up. Those are the options." With that said, she begins shooting at anything that nears, eyes a little wide. "Whoa, Nelly! Whoa!" She huffs out a quick breath, "Oh man! What's it take to get one of these puppies for ground assault? Eh? Eh??" The Carrack 'Privateer' shudders under the combined fire of the quad-laser cannons. "You filthy sods!" The pirate captain decries, shouting at his assembled crew on the bridge. "Get repair crews out on'tdouble! Move shieldin' to protect the damaged areas! An' BLOODY ENGINES ON FULL POWER!" He sweeps his arm across in a chopping motion. "Comms! Comms!" He shouts at one individual at a console, who snaps around. "Get me crew ready! Prepare for boardin' actions! Assemble defenses n' prepare offense w'proper weapons n' armour! Gunnery! Focus fire on t'midsection o'the ship, pummel t'hull into nothin' so we can clamp o-" Juran jerks forwards, gripping his seat for support. Shouts of 'Hull breach' are quickly smothered by the captains voice. "I said get t'repair crews movin'! Get some repair droids out n'the fethin' hull already! I wan' those holes repaired!" (speaking in Basic) As the turbolasers begin to pound in towards the incoming Rogue vessels, Wildman's voice raises, shouting over the comm system, "Evasive manuevers!" Yet, the other Rogues did not need the command, for their instincts kick in, and their vessels are brought about, avoiding some of the fire. One bout of laserfire clips the wing of one of the Rogues, while another take the brunt full on, nearly stalling in it's path. It is this hapless pilot who also gets caught in the tractor beam, though the nearby vessel manages to evade, though the pull of the beam slows him enough to get clipped by another bout of laserfire. "Keep it together!" roars Wildman, his features hardening. "Target for their tractor beam! All ships fire, in three... two... one." And then, the Rogues--even the one caught in the beam--fire as one. "I think that regardless you need to return. They need you more than I do, Burning Heart. Once I'm jumped I'm in the clear. No one knows what I have on board, so no one is going to be following me." Glancing over his shoulder briefly to check on Syndri, Paul nods and then replies, "Copy that, Burning Heart, shifting to full speed." The Corellian's hands work over the controls of the cockpit, bringing Ranger One up to speed and getting her ready for the jump. As such he's too busy to notice what his young passenger is up to in the back. The AEC Mantaray lunges forward, pushing Paul back into his seat, a smile curling his lips as he compliments the ship, "Baby, I had /no/ idea!" Lynae knows that the pirate vessel has been 'suped' up, to say the least. Tricked out. Pick the appropriate slang and run with it. How many hours did she listen to Juran ramble on about what was upgraded? How many times has she completely rebuilt him, from the inside out? How many times? She holds to the edges of the console while the Gunship shudders again under the onslaught but she orders, "Closer, helm, bring us closer. Weapons, concentrate weapons fire on hangar - engines - and shield generator." She eyes the display screen, seeing that their fire already punched a minor hole in the hull, "There," she calls out, "I want another volley right there," she jabs a fingertip against the display screen. The chaos of battle causes many to act without thinking. Commanders say one thing, then another, then change their orders, adding to the chaos. It's up to average soldier or pilot to sift through all the madness and figure out what the hell he is meant to do. Within the first few minutes of combat he's been across the battlefield; first the MC-40, then a run on the Audacity. Now priorities have shifted yet again: the Sith fleet is taking a pounding, and the interceptors are apparently not living up to their duties. Aned Kirkland, after launching his payload of torpedos on the Audacity, does a quick turn-about and heads back towards the Sith fleet. Rogue Squadron, the famed unit that he watched be torn to pieces by the Avengers over Calamari, is apparently back in duty, with new pilots, obviously. How good can they be? Are they as good as their deceased predecessors? He's about to find out. "This is Kirkland. Engaging the X-wings. We'll get them off you, Fleet," he says over the comm., picking out his first target: the easiest one, of course. The poor sap that's caught in the tractor beam of the larger Star Destroyer. Eliminate the weakest first. Simple as that. Smiling to himself, Kirkland locks on to the sitting womprat with a concussion missile and lets loose moments later; not too difficult to acquire a lock-on with an immobilized target, after all. 'See ya in the afterlife.' As the Viscount watches the Rogue fighter get caught in the tractor beam of the ship his eyes light up. One of their elite squadron is weakened....he clearly recognizes the unit markings on the Rogue Squadron's ships. As the Rogues turn from their jukes and laser file erupts from their cannons he jerks his body toward the gunnery station with his arm outstretched, pointing to the officer. "Match bearings on that fire and return down that vector, all weapons!" As the Rogue fighter's laser fire heads toward the tractor beam the Corvette returns fire on the ship caught in the hold with the intent of the weapons to make contact before their own tractor beam is put out of commission. The Viscount turns back to the viewport and his mouth hangs slightly open as he watches the next few seconds unfold. The Valiant was beginning to take severe damage, and it is beginning to show when the vessel's speed noticeably drops, its engines shining less brightly as the pursuing enemy forces it to stand its ground. FOrtunately, just then the enemy pulls off its concentration, and its captain orders the vessel to quickly double back now that it is no longer being pursued by heavy forces. Its forward shields reinforced, the damage control teams operating quick enough that that is possible now. It heads after the Embrace, its long-range guns trained on the departing vessels a full salvo sent from the two missile batteries in a position to fire. The Audacity, in the meantime, is faced with the option of either breaking off its attack and evading the oncoming vessels or continuing it. Strangely enough, the second is chosen as the Audacity feeds more power to its engine, the Offering headed towards at full speed forcing whatever is chasing after it to risk hitting their friendlies. Its tractor beams are not left idling, and they can be seen on sensors grasping at whatever small enemy fighter is nearby, intent on either hauling it towards the pursuing Skips or just ramming it against the Interdictor's hull, whichever seems the easiest should one be caught. Meanwhile, a flight of X-wings jump in not too far from the battles, though they do not jump into the melee quite yet, instead a long encoded string sent at both the Blue Reef and the Valiant. "Don't worry about me, Burning Heart. I can handle these guys. Besides, you're both almost in the clear. If I can stall them for just a few moments, they wont ever reach you." She grins a little behind the mic as she keys off the comm and pulls a small pendant out from under her flight suit and closes her eyes briefly before letting it fall to her chest and opening her eyes. Flipping several switches, she lowers the power output to her rear shields and shunts it to the forward shields while on a head-on course with the upcoming A-Wings. Flipping her comm to broadcast to just Ranger One, "Have a safe trip. And tell the young one not to eat all that candy at once." She laughs before keying off the mic and opening fire on the A-Wings picking no target in particular but trying to make them scatter. Warning lights flash as the volley impacts on the surrounding area of the breach, bursting it open. Crew are sucked out into the cold, harsh vaccuum of space, before the blast doors clamp down and they are left there, inside or outside of the section, to starve of oxygen or have it sucked from them. The 'hangar' of the carrack is a strange thing, more or less an external rack of which the ships are hooked upto. Upon this rack, the Z-95 ships beep as their shields are generated, providing extra cover to the flank and to the hangar of the ship itself, allowing the continual volley to be deflected - for now. Juran growls softly at the edge of his seat. "Full turbolaser volley wae all lasercannons. Full spread. Concentrate on t'midsection once more.." He lifts his hand up, as the gunner waits. The carrack gets closer, and closer.. Weathering the hail of cannon-fire from the Unquenchable Flame. "FIRE!" He swings his hand down, as all available batteries turn to unleash their salvo upon the gunship. "Take us in!" (speaking in Basic) "Adjust shields!" Lynae sings out again, seeing the energy readings flickering on the midsection of the ship and the wrong fluctuation allows enough incoming fire to singe the ship before the shields are adjusted again and the Carrack's fire rebounds off of the shields again. Alarms sound off to note the damage taken, the Gunship still maneuvering to bring weapons fire to bear as she see's the Carrack drawing close with noted speed. For no logical reason a wolfish smile forms on Lynae's face as she takes helm control briefly, recognizing this maneuvering and pours on that extra ounce of speed until the Gunship thrusts towards the Carrack to slam shields against shields in an alarming shower of sparks and energy flares. "SNAKE!" cries Wildman over the comm system, his call one of both warning and distress as he watches the Rogue caught in the tractor beam explode from the barrage of all the weapons trained upon it. "Rogues, continue the barrage on the Interdictor with torpedoes. Dodge. Tank. On my wings." Eyes narrowing, Lance lets loose another torpedo at his target, before his hands play over the controls of his X-Wing within the cockpit. Switching his weapons back to lasers, he reads over the information coming to his sensors. "We're going after those fighters." As the two X-Wings form up on his wings, Lance banks hard to starboard, the other two mimicking his manuever. "Lock on with lasers, and fire when ready." The trio come about, and soon they veer straight for the opposing fighters, while the other Rogues continue their barrage upon the much larger vessel. And then, as the ship flown by Kirkland comes into his sights, Wildman sends bolts lancing for the opposing ship. As the Z-95a, Chimaera, piloted by Kirkland breaks off from the formation, the four skiprays spread out a small amount, but still hold formation. With Axel's own skipray, the Boomstick in lead, more torpedoes launch towards the Marauder Corvette. As soon as the torpedoes are away, the ships bank hard to port, each of them in near-perfect sinc with their wing-leader. Cursing again, Axel leads the wolf-pack towards the Valiant. The Embrace was too valuable of a ship to leave unguarded. "Focus fire on the engine nacells of that ship!" Axel says, laser-targetting the Valiant for the others to be able to focus fire upon it. One ship at a time, one ship at a time was all he kept thinking. Across the planet, a secondary fleet battle is taking place. The NSO ship, Fury, was already damaged heavily from the enemies first salvo against it. In flash of fire, quickly sucked into nothingness by the vacuum of space, the ship blows apart. Warning klaxons on both of the V2SD's and the remaining VSD are going off, and the three ships are seperating wildly. Their portside and starboardside weapons batteries hammering away at whatever Republic vessel they could get a lock on. The four Dreadnaughts, while slow and far from maneuverable, were heavily armed and for such an old design had quite an impressive firing arc. Firing for effect into the mix of Republic vessels, the four dreadnaughts were attempting to force them into full evasive maneuvering. The Dark Embrace, with full power to its shields, proved to be quite a defensive craft. It had more than adequate room to improve the size of its shield generators and power supplies. Missiles, torpedoes, and laser fire alike was being deflected by large shimmers of energy. The downside was that the vessel was restricted to having almost no offensive capability in this stage. It moved forward, constantly, and maybe a little faster than the Imperial variants of the class, still trying to make that break for lightspeed. The engines of the Carrack suddenly boost to slow down and grind its shields into the Gunships. The available guns that can swivel that far turn, and begin to hit hard. Volley after volley as they attempt to lower the shields just enough to launch the docking tube, using a small set of boosters to clamp onto Gunship before its engines will fire, to send the two ships spiralling off and away. (speaking in Basic) She's kept the comms open for Axel to hear, waiting for more fragmented information in an attempt to get some insight on the enemy. Her brows furrow, still loosing suppressive fire in support of those that she fights beside. She's obviously fresh to this whole 'space combat' dealyo, made even more apparent as she attempts to address those in the NSO. "Uh, we have problems," She can be heard, breaking in without introduction. New guys. Go figure. "We have an incoming force, sirs. ETA, Unknown -- "Anytime"," She even air-quotes with one hand, going back to her task for a brief moment, breathing shallowly as she continues to inform as best she can. She patches through the communications briefly: 'Valiant Command here, understood Blue Squadron relay following orders as Task Group Vespa arrives. Reinforce Blue Reef Group, planet in danger of collateral damage, cripple and damage away from weapons range of planet. Reinforce Valiant Group, come from behind, isolate and cripple. Target priorities are as follows........' It cuts out again, static only briefly before her voice is heard again, "I hope you boys caught that, cause I dunno how much more I'm gunna be able to get! Um. .... Over?" The torpedos impact with the tractor beam emitter on the underside of the Dark Offering and the overwhelming force of the blast causes the a void to form in the shields for a split second as the emitters array crumples> The backup shield array kicks in instantly at this gap filling the void. A half second later the main array is back online for the bottom of the ship as power is evened out all around the ship by the very well trained shield operations personnel onboard. The Viscount watches as a flight of TIE Interceptors come over the top of his hull and head for the Rogues, swarming them with return laser fire as his ship turns to starboard, following the Dark Embrace on its path toward a hyperspace jump the Bothan points to the Audacity as they make their turn. He doesn't say anything but he doesn't have to. The weapons officer nods and begins directing fire that direction once more. Volley after volley of double-turbolaser cannons, turbolaser batteries and ion cannons find their way to the Audacity impacting all across its hull. "Prepare for boarding action," Lynae says, now that's an order she's never given, or rather received. "Arm all crew with what ever weapons they have training in. I want marines in sections from where they link up and staged to fall back as necessary. Everyone into EVA suits," she warns, adjusting the fit of her own CES with a tug and a mutter of distaste for being sealed in like a sardine. Her helmet is attached to the side of the webbed belt around her waist, along with the C27 Pulse Carbine. Official action or not, she's in official gear, a soldier to the last. The shields of the Gunship continue to shudder and ripple with energy as the gunners continue to concentrate weapons fire in return volleys at the Carrack, both ships are PAST gunpoint range and risk backlash from their own weapons. Ah, score one for the bad guys. Kirkland watches as the poor X-wing explodes in a fiery spectacle. He had never a chance, poor sap. "This isn't Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron died over Calamari. These are novices." One dead... eleven to go? Sounds about right. "Nice shooting there, guns," he says over the comm. to the Corvette that had helped him destroy the X-wing. "See if those tractor beams can snatch a few more. Lot easier that way." With the X-wing destroyed, it seems the Rogues were thirsty for some vengeance. So naturally they turn their blood-rage upon him. Within moments the guns of one of the X-wings is upon him; he's too slow to avoid the first salvo, the lasers splattering against his fore shields and reducing their efficiency by a good sixty-five percent. He jukes to starboard, executing a barrel roll to avoid any further fire. "Guess we pissed 'em off." It's on now, though. A good old fashion dogfight. Not very productive in the larger scale of things, but it allows the pilots to vent their frustrations in a fierce battle of pure skill. A pilot's true being comes to light here. Grinning, Kirkland prepares another concussion missile in the launch tube as he returns fire with a splatter of his own laser cannons at Rogue Leader. When a lock-on is acquired for the missile, he lets it go, the missile firing from its tube at the X-wing. Moments later, the Interceptors finally swoop in, performing their duty of picking the X-wings off the now retreating 'Offering'. "Retreating already? Psh." The ships of Task Group Vespa arrive in quite a spectacular fashion, the larger of the vessels reverting back to normal space first and providing a cover for the smaller ship should there be fire that needs to be soaked up. Fortunately, there does not seem to be many. The various elements of the group quickly seperate out as targetting priorities are designated to them by the advance flight of Blue Squadron. Vespa waits for a moment before jumping into the fray, Captain Alexin, a rather jovial man with an odd sense of humour man as he is known in some circles within the Navy, opens a comm to all those in the system. "Forces of the Sith Order, surrender if you please. If not, you will be forcibly surrendered in a most violent fashion. NRSD Vespa out." The attackers suddenly find themselves being the ones gunned for, the group splitting itself almost in half as it goes after both sides of the battle, the softer and most heavily damaged targets focused on first on either to whittle down the Sith numbers. The Task Group's fighters fan out, bombers leading the way first seeing as how the Sith fighters are engaged. The docking clamps await. Shields grinding against shields, Juran rises from his seat. "PREPARE FOR BOARDIN'! GUNNER, FULL VOLLEY OF TURBOLASERS! Feck our shields. They won't fire on us iffin' we're clamped wae em'. If we go up, they go up! Now fire all engines, spin us outta t'way." The captain immediately moves from his seat, beginning towards his quarters. "Fire until t'shields are down. Lock boardin' tubes, blow through t'hull. We'll be in in seconds. Deploy Cyroban as soon as we're in, 'en move in hard." Is his last command as the doors shut behind him, moving to get his armour and weapons ready. "I feckin' love boardin' actions, I do." (speaking in Basic) "Copy that, Ghost Six! May the Force be with you." Enb'Zik can't help laughing as Nighman's exclamation about Ranger One's speed capabilities comes loud and clear over the ship-to-ship. Zik had experienced that same thrilling feel the first time he'd really opened the fighter out and let her go. Then something changes, and the Sullustan sucks in his breath audibly, the mirth in his eyes disappearing as a deep, chilling cold erupts from the Mantaray in the Force. Zik's heart skips a beat, adrenaline rushing into his blood like he'd been plunged into frigid water. "Ranger One!" That's that. Suddenly, the Sullustan's mind is made up about escorting the ship all the way back to the Temple. Zik realizes all at once he doesn't even know the name of the man piloting his ship. "Ranger One, what's going on up there? I don't see any visible changes, but I think your cargo just went straight to the eighth Corellian hell! ETA to jump is 15 seconds. What's your condition?" Fel steps forward and glances at a sensor display and frowns, an armored hand shift to a switch and switches to a direct channel. The com officer nods as the Grand Admiral take control of the station for a moment. "Dammit," Axel exclaims hearing the communications. Opening up the NSO frequencies, he calls out. "All Sith personell, full evasive. We did what we came to do," the man's voice was full of anger, full of contempt. "Make for hyperspace vector Zeta. Get the hell out of system as soon as you're clear." Even as the man speaks, he slams a fist down on the targetting computer. A full volley of both torpedoes and missiles pours out from the vessel, rocking it in the backblast. The three other skips take a similar attack, all shots directed towards the engines of the Valiant. Even if it didn't destroy the enemy vessel, it would hopefully take out the forward drive of the massive ship. Again, the skiprays bank hard, they were there to hopefully provide cover fire for the retreating NSO forces. When the Republic backup arrives, Axel sends out a command to all hyper-capable fighters to engage and for those without hyperdrives to make haste towards some form of carrier vessel. The seven remaining warships on the other side of planet are following suit, each making a break for hyperspace as fast as they can. Even without hearing the comms chatter from the opposing forces, it would be overly apparent to the 'good guys' that the Sith fleet was rapidly retreating, leaving behind only a few straglers to try and provide cover for the larger vessels. "Thank you Six, may the Force be with you. Go kick some ass!" He hopes he sees her again to thank her properly, but his disorted voice over the com will have to do for now. But Paul blinks and then twists in his seat at Enb'Zik's comment about his cargo, snapping harder than he means to, "Syndri! Put it back and close the box NOW!" There is a squeak and some rummaging about and then the talisman is safely back in its box, its power sealed back up again. Turning back, Paul replies tersely, "Cargo has been secured, Burning Heart. Everything is fine." But he realizes now who, ar at least what, the pilot Enb'Zik is. "Condition secured. Ready to jump in 15 seconds." There's a flurry of activity on the Flame as the crew stuffs themselves into the EVA suits, the ships weapons master having delegated THAT particularly funfilled activity to a gunnery sergeant who moves through the ship, getting personnel into place, positioning the marines towards the most likely access points. The weapons fire continues to hammer just on the other side of the hull with near deafening cacophony. The shields continue to spark and fluctuate wildly until a rather ominous "Si..er.. Ma'am, ah, Commander?" the helmsman calls out as the shields snap down - up again - down and stay down. "Shields are down," Lynae says calmly and rests one hand on the shoulder of the Technician, "Specialist, you work on the shields. Helm, you watch the battle and let me know if anyone strays in our direction. Weapons, you're with me," she says before making for the aft hatch at calm walk. A lady -never- runs, after all. It is here that Lance Corbet earns his namesake. The lock is achieved; the torpedo launched. And Wildman does not veer from the missile. Instead, he adjusts his vessel just enough to go straight at Kirkland's fighter. A brilliant flash is seen as the torpedo explodes into the fore of his shields, his shields flickering and dropping for an instant. Yet, they flare, not completely out, but close. "My turn." states the man known as Wildman, his wingmates peeling off to loose laserfire at other vessels within the vicinity, and soon, Lance fires directly for Kirkland's cockpit. The engines of the Dark Offering seem to glow a bit brighter as it really opens up what it can do. As it reaches its full speed the extent of the modifications to the vessel become apparently as it travels at 120 mglt through sub-light. Most other fighters cannot keep up with that speed, and even the fastest fighters can only match it. As the ship reaches its speed, shield power is diverted to the rear, holding off the volleys being directed at it from the variety of enemy ships as it retreats from battle. The Viscount turns on his heels and walks over to a terminal, peering over the shoulder of a sensors officer as the forward viewport no longer offers a sufficient view of the battle. "Continue your fire on the Audacity." The ship's potential really begins to shine at this point. The shields light up as energy from the enemy lances off of them, being deflected from all angles. Double turbolaser cannon fire and turbolaser battery fire continue to pour from the Dark Offering at the Audacity. Ion cannon fire, in particular, targets the shield generators at different points on the ship. Comchatter in the background is a obvious distraction, and Juran comes to the main docking point fully armed and prepared. The ST-II blaster carbine is fully charged and ready, as well as a vibro-axe attacked to a belt with pouches, containing extra ammunition cells and other trinkets. With a hiss and a thud, the docking clamps latch on to the hull of the Corellian Gunship, and two engineer's quickly move up, welding torches lit to begin burning through the weakened hull. "We got five minutes! 'urry it up you bunch of sods, or ah'll kill you mesel'!" (speaking in Basic) In his own cockpit, Enb'Zik blinks several times and uses the Force to slow his heart back to normal -- or at least to a normal pulse for combat. "Copy, Ranger One," he replies after a moment. "Preparing for the jump now, then. Beehive reports the battle's breaking up anyway. I'm going to follow you home." Even as he speaks, the navicomputers in both ships begin slowing them down to make the final adjustments before lightspeed. "Entering Hyperspace in ten, nine, eight, seven, ..." Whatever was in that ship, Enb'Zik knows now with little uncertainty that if it falls into the wrong hands, bad will be an understatement. His mind lingers on talisman as his eyes and lips follow the countdown, "... four, three, two ..." The sound of the docking clamps latching onto the Gunship echoes oddly from the hull inward and the marines stationed near that point pass the word along just as Lynae and the guy manning the weapons (what DO we call that guy, anyway?) make their way towards that section of the ship. "Specialist, let me know when everyone is in their EVA gear. Anyone NOT in their gear within the next five minutes is going to find themselves VERY cold," she warns. Oh, he's not expecting that. Not one bit. It's moments like these where you stop and ponder your life. Your family, the ones you loved, friends... your childhood, your teenage ages, and your eventual descent into adulthood, where you went wrong and got into the wrong sort of stuff. And he definitely went the wrong way, somewhere in life. How else can you explain Aned Kirkland's present situation, where his life is about to end in a big bang? Working for the Sith, razing a planet down, taking a proton torpedo right in the cockpit. Poor, poor Kirkland. His own missile does barely any damage to the X-wing's shields - which he found surprising at first, but then thought nothing of it. He didn't have time to really dwell on his failure. Not even the best could have predicated this turn of events. Before he can realize what has just happened and react, the proton torpedo impacts, blasting through his shields and straight into his cockpit. Neutralized, blown to nothing. The cockpit is completely eradicated. Its pilot no more. What's left of the Z-95A is blown away from the impact, shattered across the blackness of space. Farewell Aned Kirkland, we hardly knew ye. "You're coming home with me? But you didn't even buy me dinner first," Paul protests mildly, but he demures no further than that. If the Jedi wants to follow him to Ord Mantell, then that is just what is gonna happen. Nothing the Corellian can really do about that. He joins Enb'Zik on the last bit of the countdown, "three, two, one ... jump." The stars are suddenly streaking by, the ship shudders and jumps and then with a rush they are entering hyperspace, the battle for Kashyyyk left far, far behind. Aboard the Dark Presence, Salin Fawzy rises from the Command Chair and takes a couple of steps towards the viewport, his hands slipping beneath his cloak as he regards the battle that has unfolded. As the order to retreat is given, his head turns towards the navigation officer, eyes narrowing ever so slightly, "Prepare an exit vector. Engage sub-light drives at maximum." Another turn of his head and it returns to those manning the tacical station, "Focus fire on targets of opportunity. Capital Ships first, Fighters secondary. As we turn, divert power to rear shields." And so, the vessel begins to turn towards it's exit vector, sub-light drives flaring to life as the power begins to roar through them. ETA: 5:00 The engineers make quick work of the already weakened hull, as the Carracks engines continue firing on full throttle to drag the Gunship away from any fire. This was his prize. The hull suddenly falls inwards with a dull *crump*, leaving some sucking vacuum for a few moments, before the omniously loud *clunk* *clunk *clunk* of a Cyroban grenade being tossed in. One left. One right. "Four. Three. Two. Down!" And the boarding party crouch as a burst of violent frozen gasses and gel throw themselves over the corridors. (speaking in Basic) "Anytime, Ranger One." She grins a little, then frowns as the enemy fighters turn to flee the system. Letting out a bit of a sigh, she moves to rejoin the rest of the NR forces in orbit and begin the mop-up of any stragglers left behind. She smiles as the two crafts jump to hyperspace and vanish from her radar. Flipping the comm to an NR frequency, she says in a short curt voice, "The travelers have left the system. Ghost Six returning to main fleet." She cuts off the mic and kicks the throttle to full, closing her S-Foils to pick up a little extra speed. As Ranger One enters hyperspace, Zik's countdown clock hits zero. Barely a quarter-second behind the Mantaray, the sparkling new Z-110 Hellion suddenly rockets forward and disappears into the void. The two had not even been challenged in making it away from the fight and getting the Sith artifact safely away from Malign. But the fact the amulet had been exposed was worrisom. To Enb'Zik its presence had seemed so overwhelmingly powerful, he half wonders now whether Luke and Jessalyn -- and, of more concern, Malign -- could sense it down on the surface. It was something Zik would have to contact them about once the battle was over. The Viscount watches as the blip that was Kirkland's fighter fades from the screen. "Damnit!" the Bothans exclaims. He has personally recruited that man into the Sith. His eyes furrow, causing a crease beneath his fur in his forehead. The Offering continues to speed away from the battle, coming up alongside the Presence. "Direct all fire on that fighter!" The gunnery officer knows what the angry Viscount means by 'that fighter' as they all heard his loud curse as the event of the Z-95a's death. Weapons fire from the Corvette begins to fire toward the Lance's fighter. An unpredictable pattern of fire lances out toward the space that he occupies, tracking him as he travels across the ship's rear fire arc. Ion Cannons, Double Turbolaser Batteries and Turbolaser Cannons mix together to present a green spectacle of deadly light as the fighter that has already weakened shields. < NSO - Dark Presence V2SD> The battle outside might as well be a dull fireworks show to Ssanyu from the looks of it all. The nails continuing to be filed idly, lifting a hand and twisting fingers here and there in order to examine the work in progress. Not a single word being slipped past the emerald tiers. The Falleen's gaze idly drifts over towards Fawzy for a few moments as she glances out over the expanse of the bridge. The tendrils of muscles twining around her mandible loosen, dropping it down as a yawn is formed that lasts a few moments before snapping shut once more. "NO!!!" Axel exclaims as his sensors pick up his prized Z-95a blown to pieces. It wasn't so much the loss of the pilot as it was the loss of the ship itself that pissed him off. "Maintain formation on that ship," Axel says over comms to the other skiprays, who continue their fire on the Valiant. Axel, however breaks away at lightning speed. His hands deftly maneuvering the controls. The Boomstick was heavily modified, and while not near as maneuverable, it had the speed of an A-wing when on full burn. Screaming in the direction of the Rogues, he intended to exact his revenge on the pack of X-Wing fighters. The skipray was more designed to take down capital ships, but it was a capable anti-fighter craft with an adequate pilot at the helm. "Decrevi," Keep on thos comms. I want to know whatever they say," he says, lining up his sights on the first X-wing in his path. A full volley of ion-fire pours from the craft, designed to take the shields down of the opposing fighter just before a proton-torpedo is launched. Axel had no clue exactly which X-wing was responsible, so his goal was to destroy them all. It was a rather unrealistic goal, however. As the other ships maneuver for a jump point, one of the Dreadnaughts takes overly too much fire from Task Force Vespa's ships. Even with the vessels laying down heavy fire of their own, the archaic dreadnaught was still no match for the Republic Destroyers. Another of the Sith capital ships goes out with a flash of light and a scattering of debris. Fifteen thousand more crewmen lost their lives tonight, many of them slaves of the expanding Sith Empire, though quite a few were loyal followers and officers of the Sith armada. Unfortunately for Axel, this also signaled his own need for departure. After his final shots at the opposing X-wing, he banks hard to port. Pumping energy to his shields, the man kicks the afterburners in and sends the ship careening off to space at breakneck speeds to a jump point. Of the remainder of his flight lance, only two make it to hyperspace while the other is destroyed. Throttle fully pressed forward, Lance's shot striking true, Wildman watches as the lead fighter goes up in an explosion. Vengeance had, though far from happy, the pilot of Rogue Two speaks over his comm system. "Looks like we're bugging out of here, boys. Rogues, form up and fall back." With that said, the Rogues do just that. Lynae is jamming her helmet into place, being always loathe to seal herself up like some sort of bit of vacuum fresh produce. The seals clamp into place, she's dialing up the ships freq to have it routed through the helmet just as the marines near the boarding point shout out the warning and fall back a handful of paces as the hull crumples inward with the sound of metal tearing. Now that's a memorable sound! Two cannisters are tossed inside and the ominous hiss of sound before frozen gasses and gel are vomited all over the interior corridor of the Gunship. Lynae turns away as the cannisters land, shoulders hunching a bit as she grips a handhold that's rather conveniently bolted to the wall. The marines nearest the access point are doing the same thing, turning away from the explosion to save their vision and keep their visors from getting all gummed up with frozen gunk. Those unlucky enough to get caught under the brunt of the blast are coated in the gooey frozen stuff and rendered rather efficiently immobile in a blast wave that promises to leave one heck of a headache afterwards. Lynae yanks the C27 free from it's webbing - or starts to, at least, and finds it a bit stuck by the frozen gunk. She exercises some of the WORST features of her education by swearing colorfully in several languages and grabs the knife from the side of the Lieutenant beside her, saws through the webbing and finally yanks the C27 free enough to bring it to bear as she turns back and levels the weapon towards where they're expecting company. "Wait for it," she orders in a terse voice, "don't waste weapons fire until they come through." (4:00 minutes and counting down) Lynae is holding the C27 in a two-handed grip, feeling that icy trickle of adrenaline rushing through her body, reminding herself why she's ALWAYS hated hand to hand combat. It's messy. The marines take the brunt of the initial volley, their EVA suits built with enough protection to shield them enough that the rounds do knock them back, do take them out of the fight, but they're only down for the count, not dead. Lynae has always hated ordering soldiers to die, she's done it often enough, but that doesn't mean she likes it. She sees the edge of the ST-II opening fire and she side-steps down the hall and opens fire in return, firing into the aperture created by the Carrack's crew as those marines behind her do the same. Juran keeps his finger down on the trigger, and as the initial volley causes casualties, more of the boarding crew begin to rush in. The large trandoshan takes a good few shots and simply topples over, dead. Another crewman moves to take his place. Juran himself begins to come out of his position, holding the ST-II at chest-height, bracing for the recoil and the rapidly-heating barrel as he begins his advance with two other crewmembers, carbines and heavy-blaster firing. "Take it to e-Ahg!" He shifts to one side, lurching down as a blaster bolt careens off his arm, barely deflected by the enhanced armour as he pushes himself up. "Ye'll pay fer 'at.." (speaking in Basic) However, as the Rogues retreat, it is the lead vessel--Rogue Two--that is targetted by the capital ship nearby. Within his cockpit, all hell breaks loose as warning claxons sound, and the pilot jerks his stick to the left, banking hard to port. "Damnit!" he calls. "Get out of here!" he calls to the others, and Rogue Two breaks off, his X-Wing sweeping back and forth in no discernable pattern either. Attempting to keep one step ahead of the fire, it works for a time- And then, a turbolaser strikes true, catching his flank, and slamming straight through the weakened shields, clipping his wing, and knocking out one of the quad laser cannons, causing Wildman to spiral in a barely controlled spin. <3:30> "So you say, but this I do not believe," Lynae mutters into the helmets com, allowing it to broadcast to the boarding parting. "Fall back," she orders in that same terse voice, drawing the boarding party deeper into the ship to allow the marines waiting in the aft most section to stealthily approach, waiting for her signal to rush forward - the seconds ticking away. Lynae knows this suit of enhanced armor, "I told you that we'd be here," okay so maybe she can't resist the 'I told you so' comment but she DID tell him that they'd end up here. She fires at that suit of enhanced armor, wondering in an abstract way just how much fire it can take from the C27. Staggering backwards, Juran reels from another blaster bolt, this time to the leg. He drops to one knee as the crew continue to advance, and some even break into a run as they charge after the retreating marines. With a wince, Juran pushes himself back up onto his feet, and he takes a slow step forwards. The ST-II is shoved back into it's holster, as the Captain reaches around to start to drag out an AA-8, limping into Lynae's previously used cover to start to recover. "Yea. You did. 'lucky fer you.. I know how 'is ends." (speaking in Basic) <3:00 minutes> "Do you now?" Lynae says, eyes narrowed a bit as more of Juran's crew spill into the corridor of the Gunship, giving it MORE of their precious seconds to catch as many of them as possible. It's a risky move. But then, she didn't get to where she is by doing the safe moves, by playing it by the book. As Juran starts to drag out the AA-8 Lynae steps out from behind the cover and AGAIN rushes the fight to Juran. She plants one foot on the floor, reversing her grip on the C27 and swings the end of the gun towards the union of the Helmet that Juran is wearing and the point where it latches to the body of armor itself. She hammers once, then again, swings to the side and slams the weapon against the side of his armor and fires point blank from that angle. A snarl of anger is Juran's response as Lynae rushes, from one or two obvious shouts of surprise from the crewmen before Lynae gets to the gunpoint, Juran brings his head *down* as the gun is swept to stab into his neck, and he instead headbutts the middle of the C27 to slam it away from him for a moment. He jerks back, and lets a howl of pain out as he leans too heavily on the freshly injured leg. The AA-8, instead of shooting, is used to at least deflect another stab of the weapon, and it's dropped as a blaster-bolt hits it, rendering it useless. One hand drops back, grabbing ahold of his Vibro-Axe, while the other comes forwards, to slap one large palm onto the visor of the woman and shove her back. Just enough space to get the vibro-axe out, already humming its rage to the galaxy. "Aye. Time's almost up." (speaking in Basic) (2:30) Lynae staggers backwards and barks out one word "NOW" into the freq routed through her helmet, her eyes actually unfocused for a moment as the shove slams her back against the wall and into some of that slowly melting cryo-go that's vomited all over the corridor. She keeps her grip on the C27, training and habit and muscle memory kicking in even when her ears are ringing. She sees the vibro-axe free of it's holster and instead of backing off (that'd be the logical thing) she shoves forward again and fires once at the armored hand holding the ax then adjusts her aim again and fires At the axe itself. On her command the marines waiting in the aft-most portion of the ship burst through into this section of the ship, firing at the boarding party while the marines from THIS side of the corridor fire at the same time, catching the boarding party in a rather brilliantly illuminated bit of cross fire. Juran lurches a step forwards, swinging the axe up from its original position to above his head and down again to gather some momentum, disturbing that aim. The boarding party is taken by surprise, with some numbers cut down and others simply wounded, with a few still to come out of the boarding tube, these halt and instead begin to pepper return fire from that angle. Juran brings the Vibro-Axe above his head instead, fingers curling to clutch it tightly in both hands, and he tilts it at a slight angle before lurching forwards and hacking downwards, aimed towards Lynae's shoulder. "Just /die/ already, and b'DONE wae it!" (speaking in Basic) (2:00) Lynae actually laughs, a startled burst of sound at Juran's words and she hunches her shoulder in answer, feeling the impact of the vibro-axe against her CES and the resulting bone jarring impact that nearly drives her to her knees. 'Nearly' in this context means she staggers and actually falls TOWARDS Juran instead of away while the Lieutenant who's in charge of keeping the marines firing and keeping the invaders from advancing beyond this corridor shouts out a warning and starts to alter the aim of his own weapon to offer cover fire to the visiting commander. Lynae's fingers twitch, a round from the C27 sears into the floor, another into the wall behind Juran before she shoves one hand against his chest and pushes herself backward enough to land with a thump on the floor. Again that two handed grip is taken on the C27 and she fires up at Juran. The losses were significant, but not very crippling. Kashyyyk stood, the Republic had won a much-needed victory in terms of morale. Or so the spin masters would play it as soon as things were in a state for them to be let in, and who knows, they might just be right. The battle is littered with the ead and dying and as soon as things allow it, S&R teams are dispatched to comb for those that can be rescued and corridors are cleared to the planet, all debris removed to allow traffic to start back as soon as possible. The same is said to happen on the ground, with the fires on the planet rushed to be put out before they deal even more damage than they already have. The Audacity itself has, rather miraculously, been spared heavy damage, its tractor beams are all shot up, and its shields will need considerable time before they can be brought up to bear. The hull has been breached at several locations though not to the point that it forces the vessel to land for fear of losing life support. Much unlike the Defender which has been evacuated of its crew, the vessel having lost much of its integrity and about to go down in flames any moment now, and so for that reason it has been left far from the planet and the Republican lines lest it endanger its own allies. The Blue Reef's group has been hit harder, no doubt requiring that it be pulled off the line for some time as it undergoes repairs and somehow the lost vessels, in particular the Cadomar and Cadomai, twin distinguished Assault Frigates with a long history, must be replaced. Still, it is a victory, and it is best to focus on that part. The Dark Offering arrives at the waypoint set for the Sith ships to make the jump to lightspeed. Strolling over to the communications console the Viscount leans over the shoulder of a crewman and presses a button, "Admiral, this is the Executor of Malign. Dark Offering is ready to jump and will do so on confirmation of this message as your leisure." Straightening up, he turns and walks back to the sensor board, watching the holographic projection with interest. Their weapons systems still blaze away firing defensively on enemy ships who get near any of the Sith capital vessels. The Viscount sniffs with frustration as he begins to go over in his head just how their tactics played out. He comments to one of the images on the screen. "At least that bloody cruiser will not see battle again." He points to the IFF blip of the Defender, the MC40 that received so much fire from the Sith capitals. Both sides took heavy losses tonight, both on the ground and in the skies. It had never been the Sith's mission to actually conquer the system, only make it look like an attempt to do so. By all means, it looked as if they tried their best. Sith ships were leaving realspace with rapid progression, running hard for any escape vector they could. The only ship that didn't leave was the Boomstick. Using the cover of other ships as much as it could, the flat black Vessel with the overpowered thrusters booked it around the planet and into the atmosphere. THe pilot only prayed his misdirections and stealth tactics worked. He had men on the ground to rescue. It would be an overly tight fit in the small ship, but he'd have to make due. Screaming into the canopy, the ship blazed it's way through the trees, dipping, ducking, diving, and dodging at breakneck speeds. The shields were the only thing that tended to save it from exploding into several of the larger branches. His response to being leant and pushed upon for support? Juran swings his head down to headbutt Lynae's visor as hard as he can with his own helmet, as he at least tries to shove the blade of his axe forwards to make some space. "Drag t'bodies back aboard, toss on t'satchel charges. Two minutes.." He snarls towards Lynae. "Let me go, or ah'll kill you, wench!" He grunts, and gives a yelp as a blaster-bolt from a Marine commando sears over his shoulder, sending him reeling and staggering, clutching at it with his free hand. "Aagh! Fethin'bastich.." (speaking in Basic) The Dark Presence follows behind the Dark Offering, arriving at the exit vector minutes beyond the other sith ship. As the ship begins to slow in preperation of the jump to lightspeed, Fawzy receives the message from the Viscount and he moves to reclaim his seat in the command chair. A hand moves to the armrest, a finger pressing the communication button to active a channel to the other vessel, "Executor, message is confirmed. Dark Presence is preparing for jump now." The channel is then closed and Fawzy shifts his gaze over towards Ssanyu, regarding her for a moment as a smirk draws upon his lips, "And so, Countess, I trust your nails are now well groomed?" (1:30) "You mean you'll keep trying to," Lynae corrects through gritted teeth as the edge of the axe hits the front of her suit of armor and knocks the wind out of her in the process. She can see that the marines are pushing forward, pushing Juran's crew back through the aperture they cut in the hull of the Gunship she's borrowing from the NR and her marines are still firing and being fired upon. She coughs, adjusts the angle that she's holding the C27 and fires at Juran's knees and legs, left to right and back again, peppering him with fire. It takes her a moment in order to realize that she's being spoken to or merely to draw her attention away from the 'all important task' of filing her nails. Through the wealth of lashes, the amethyst orbs come to lock onto Fawzy. A twisting of the lips curving into a sinister half-grin showing a glint of the ivory white teeth set behind them. "I will need an opinion on that. Shall you come here to check for yourself?" As far as everything else, there is no response made onto it from Ssanyu. Several fighters lacking hyperspace capabilities fly into the hangar of the Dark Offering as they pause at the escape waypoint. The Dark Offering blips into hyperspace, disappearing from the space it occupied seconds before. The Viscount turns from the bridge and glances to the Captain as he makes his way to the turbolift, heading toward his quarters. "Begin repairs, I want a full status report of our systems within the change of the next watch. I shall be in my quarters." He strolls onto the lift as its double doors slide open to make way for him. He turns on his heel, facing the entrance of the lift as they slide shut and the lift descends. Wounded, hurt, Juran slowly staggers back a retreat. One crewmember snatches up the damaged AA-8, while another two attach a large satchel to the wall, using the cyroban grenade's gloop as glue. It beeps its response as Juran moves into full retreat, swiping the axe once at Lynae, aimed straight towards her chest before he turns tail to flee under the hail of blaster-fire, with two crewmen providing covering fire by ways of two ST-I rifles. (speaking in Basic) (1:00) Lynae is once more smacked by the edge of the axe, this time hard enough to drive her back down to the floor and into more of that goop, the edge of the axe finally chomping through the combat suit just enough that the result is a strangled sort of yelp of pain from Lynae. She presses one hand against her chest while the marines drive the remains of the boarding party back onto the Carrack. There's a burst of static then the specialist from the bridge calls out, "Shields! We have shields again Commander!" and the ships shields start to flicker back into place. Lynae's eyes find the satchel attached to the wall and again there's that brief spate of bad language followed by, "I need a shield on this section. everyone OUT, clear out, fall back, move it," and she's struggling to her feet. Juran is grasped by his crewmen, and literally dragged back through onto the carrack. His body somewhat limp after the damage received, he at least enjoys the sound of pain from Lynae. Something he'll remember, at least. The satchel on the wall begins to beep loudly, its countdown ticking away as the Carrack finally yanks back it's docking tube, the seal slamming over shut. "'ome." He mutters, left slumped aagainst one of the walls for the medics to take him to the medbay. "Ah'll get you, woman." (speaking in Basic) (0:30) The marines are clearing out of the section, dragging the wounded and the unconscious with them. The ominous beeping can be heard from that satchel as Lynae makes her way to her feet, shoves the C27 into it's holster, where it promptly falls to the floor (she forgot she sawed through the side of the webbing to get the weapon free) as she staggers towards the satchel glued to the wall. "Drop the shield in this section and CLEAR OUT," she bellows as she rips the satchel off of the wall with a mighty adrenaline-boosted heave. She drags it, and herself, to the gaping hole in the hull and waits the last few precious seconds as the marines bust ass and haul themselves out of the corridor. The bulk head doors slam shut with a resounding clang and Lynae barks the order again, "DROP SHIELDS IN THIS SECTION," and there's a nervous sounding, "Yes ma'am" in answer. The instant the shield flickers down she leaps through the hole in the side of the ship! She balances the satchel with one gloved hand, kicks it with all of her might and watches it go spinning crazily away towards the side of the Carrack as it's starting to maneuver away. "Shields UP SHIELDS UP" she gasps into the helmet mic as she starts to drift away from the mess of the two ships. The shields flicker back into place as she's fumbling for the repair kit with one hand, slams the visor down on her helmet and slaps a patch over the large rent in the front of her CES. The explosion causes the Privateer to veer away harder, using the explosion to send it soaring further away incase any NR ships get too close. The pilot quickly twists the ship around and as he prepares to engage the hyperdrive, the R2 Unit, TR-35, enters in the coordinates. With a sudden *fwoomph*, the Carrack ship boosts itself ahead, before it launches itself violently into hyperspace. (speaking in Basic) (0:00) The explosion that rips the satchel apart, the blast wave catching the Carrack with the brunt of the explosive force, also peppers the pirate vessel with numerous small holes. The edge of the blast-wave sends Lynae sailing towards the Gunship to slam hard against the hull then ricochets over the curve of the side, slams into another section then goes drifting off into the black. Stars explode in Lynae's field of vision, air steadily leaking from the gash down the chest plate of her suit and she activates the locater beacon with a fumble of her left hand to her right wrist before she starts to black out entirely. From the bridge of the Gunship the crew stare in open mouthed horror as she drifts past the forward view port, the spill of oxygen obvious from where they're standing. The XO makes a hasty command and a pair of able bodied marines make the necessary moves to go out and retrieve the commander. It's several long minutes before she's reeled inside, but in the end they make the limping transition back to Kashyyyk and rejoin the battle group.
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