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| - ((As performed by starfighter pilots)) (Wolf) Raptor 3, Wolf's new fighter. He had just been given it as a sort of gift from the Admiral, as he thought anyway. It could be just for getting back into the works as a senior officer again. "Nothing on sensors yet." A whisper came through the comms from one of his wingmen. Wolf was leading a couple of squadrons on the Ord line, making sure no Rebel activity crossed over into Imperial Space. He felt a little different with a couple of wingmen then the rest of a squadron behind him, it was something they had started implimenting to higher officers in the field. Though Rall was on the field, he wanted to be on her wing. "Keep tight formation, remember to use your eyes as well as your scanners." he whispered into the comms to all the TIEs patrolling. (Rall) One of the more tedious requirements of Admiral Rall's new position was to inspect and review the actions of her sector chiefs. This was a standard boarder patrol yet there was a high chance of a run in with the rebel skirmishers. Dana had chosen this group to inspect because they were being led by a pilot she knew well. Commander Wolf had been a thorn and a rose at various times in his time in the Corps, Dana was out here to see which version was controlling the stick. In her own fighter the pilot know as Vapor watched the tight formation of TIES As was her mark since taking command of Viper Squadron, Lord Korolov had ordered her fighter painted and it was easy to pick out on the field, the TIE was stark white. On her wing was her squadron mate from Viper, call sign Boomer he was a tough nut and a steady stick. It was like a class reunion out here. (Korolov) 'Boomer' glances down at his display, keeping his leader in his forward port sector. He keys several of his switches, allowing his interceptor to match his leader's speed. Once that is set he begins focusing his attention between the fighter's short range scanners and keeping a visual look out for the telltale signs of approaching rebel vessels. He reaches down with a hand and adjusts the O2 level on his rebreather. These long patrols could often wear down a pilot, a little shot of pure O2 every now and then would keep him alert and ready for action. (Korolov) (Kesander) In the cockpit of Ghost 7, Captain Kesander Beysarus lets his eyes shift from visual to monitoring his scopes to checking his system status readouts. Hitting his comlink, the Corellian transmits to the whole of Ghost Squadron: "Don't fall asleep on me people. Keep your eyes peeled. We could run into anything out here. Don't ignore your long range sensors. Flight leaders report in; let me know what you're seeing. Sandman, over." (Raxis) From the cockpit of Ghost 3, Raxis "Raptor" L'ygr carefully speeds along ahead of the Corvette alongside his wingman "Turtle". Wide awake amid a rash of bad patrol incidents, Raxis isn't about to convince himself that this patrol would be any different. Having been sufficiently ambushed on 2 patrols in the last few months, Raxis' tail is getting rather sore, and he's finding it hard not to be agitated. "Ghost Seven, this is Raptor," He chimes in looking to the vision of a far off large asteroid. A cold sweat runs down the back of his spine as he remembers a patrol where he lost Lance almost for good. "We've got an astral body up ahead. Decent sized rock probably a class 2, permission to scout it, over?" Keline has been watching the sensor date as Vextin has been speaking, her arms folded across her chest, before she turns to him and shakes her head. "We haven't found anything yet, but the sweep of the sector isn't finished yet. We'll jump when the scan is complete..if it means less hassle later from the higher ups the work now is worth it." (Wolf) "Comms free." Wolf said, staring right out his front viewport at the squadrons approaching the asteroid. He keyed in all imperial ships including the 'mothership', "Hostiles spotted, Engage at will." Wolf flicked up his throttle and sent his TIE into full speed towards the incoming fighters, "TIEs, You guys know the drill." Wolf's comm chatter wasn't exactly military. He didn't believe in all that while flying, it was easier to just talk to the squadron as a whole and give orders directly. They knew his voice and noone complained. It was time to test his fighter in real combat, this time his Callsign and name was painted in design on one side of his fighter. He had decided to show the Enemy who he was. He had no fear, he was an Imperial officer and was there to get the job done. Warming up his cannons he was ready for them, no suprises for them this time. (Rall) Picking up the approaching rebels Jal'Dana opens up her communication unit to her wingman, "Boomer, we're going to engage from the side of the formation. Let Wolf's group be the main focus." They were still hidden by the asteroids, but Wolf's aggressive stance would give away that advantage. The smirk lasted only a second, he was in old form, and then back to business. Checking her shield status and transferring power to weapons her TIE is performing in the proper ranges, it was good to have knuckle draggers you could trust. "Commander Wolf, we'll be covering your flank, you have the main battle line. We'll pick up the stragglers" Her raspy voice was even keel and unwavering as always in battle. Slipping into a wide turn, Boomer was flying so close to her it was like one ship. On Jal'Dana HUD the enemy forces were highlighted as well as the locations of friendlies. The woman shifted a bit in her shock couch and the adjusted her laser sights. (Korolov) 'Boomer' lets off a little on his throttle, allowing the lead fighter to gain a little distance. He reaches down and flicks a switch, his sensors change from scanning to combat. The interior ships lights flick ut and switch to a dull red glow, "Bringing blasters to 100 percent. Shields set to full. Reducing throttle to combat speed. Awaiting the weapons free order." The veteran pilot curls his fingers around the yoke, his thumbs resting less than a millimeter from the sensor studs that will trigger the ships blaster cannons to fire. (Korolov) (Kesander) The appearance of a whole host of hostile contacts on Kesander's scopes doesn't go unnoticed, nor does it go more than fleeting seconds before the Corellian hits his comlink, transmitting on the Ghost Squadron tactical channel: "Ghost Squadron, Bandits, bandits! Comming in at...11 o'clock just above the ecliptic plane. Lots of targets people. I want tight squadron combat tactics, attack pattern theta, leads and wingmen cover each other close. Cut 'em off, set 'em up and knock 'em down. We're gonna keep those bastards off of audacity. Tally ho, people. Good hunting." (Raxis) "Oh you've got to be kidding m..." Raxis mutters to himself as he checks into his comm and opens chatter to the squadron. He quickly taps his helmet twice for good luck. "Turtle fall to defensive cover. Ghost 4, stay with me. Ambush. Going in..." Raxis calls out over the comm as he pulls back on his flight stick and banks to face 11 o' clock high. In a familiar roll pattern, Raxis rushes to meet the opposition with an evasive approach, included with his familiar series of barrel rolls. Opening fire on the forward leader, he holds his breath and pulls the trigger. (Shovadu) "Ghost 4 here, on your wing Raptor." The Dug's voice is easily picked out over coms in general, his accent heavy though his basic is flawless. The X-wing rolls into formation and falls in on the wing of Raxis, opposite of Turtle. He remains evasive, but as Raxis opens fire, Shovadu rolls Ghost 4 once to the left, and lets loose a volley before shifting back over to the wing of his flight leader for the day. (Wolf) "One Marauder class Corvette and Ghost Squadron." Wolf said, keying up the Emancipator, "It's heading towards the belt with support infront, I don't pick up anything larger in the vicinity." He smiled as another transmission from Rall's fighter came in, the woman had been on his back for many things but the one thing he welcomed was her presence on the battlefield, he didn't reply, she knew what he was thinking. Flying straight at the X-Wings, the red glow of their fire began to streak towards him, "Break." he said to his wingmen and they were already doing so, rolling nicely out of the way, Wolf on the otherhand pulled back on the stick and sent his fighter sailing up, as he did so a small scratch found it's way onto his fighter. Twisting his fighter around he aimed back and returned fire from the volley that hit him. "Take prisoners, ISB made a small joke about more meat, I say we give it to them." He said, angrily fingering the trigger sending the green streaks towards ghost 4. (Rall) The distinct shape of the TIEs was there advantage. The solar fins had been bent and elongated into a "dagger" shape. This increased the surface area to provide more collected power, while actually keeping the pilot's wide field of vision. This also reduced the craft's profile, making it much more difficult to target. These factors would be key in shaping exactly how the Admiral flew her craft. "Weapons free" Jal'Dana radioed to her wingman. "They have spotted us" The flanking movement had brought Vapor and Boomer towards the center rear of the Rebel formation, the X-wings would be faced with a battle on two sides of them. The lead X-wing was opening fire into the main formation. It was time to welcome them all to the party. She marked ghost 3 on her HUD as a target of interest, she knew that pilot and his moves. When the time was right she would engage him. Jal'Dana linked up her laser cannons to fine as two and two. Squeezing the trigger Cannons 1 and 3 fire, then 2 and 4 at the trailing fighter that had slowed from Wolf's hit. (Korolov) 'Boomer' banks his fighter to the right, as Vapor chooses a target for the pair and engages, he locks on as well, manuevering with his lead wing before replying, "Affirmative, makes it easier to kill them when we know where they are." His weapons are fire linked as he depresses the trigger, all four blasters firing in rapid succession as he takes aim at Vapor's target. (Kesander) As the fury of combat begins to explode around Ghost Squadron, Kesander's veteran senses aren't dazzled but yoked firmly to the business of assaulting the enemy. "Spectre Flight, follow me. We've got company at our six o'clock." Leading three additional ships, Sandman peels away to starboard, rolling as he brings his ship about, his flight mates following him. Ghost 8, stay on me." And with this, the Corellian lets the first available TIE float into his site reticle. Thumbing his weapons selector to quad lasers, the Captain fires on what happens to be Rall's ship. (Raxis) "Audacity this is Ghost 3," Raxis begins as the two flights cross eachother in a screaming wall of red and green blasterfire. The space battle unfolds into the beginnings of a furball as the squadrons collide. "No sign of a cap but we've got that rock. White TIE fighter. Repeat. Marked TIE fighter." Raxis calls out over the comm as his wingman is assaulted. "Four! Bank right and meet me around I'll provide covering fire. Watch that crossfire!" He calls out. Banking, Raxis performs an immelman turn and pushes himself hard back into his seat as his X-wing forces its way back into the furball. Taking aim at the White TIE, he flies past with a strafing shot. "Off the dug..." He mutters, not broadcasting over the comm as he fires. (Shovadu) The first shot coming the way of Ghost 4 is a solid hit, knocking out the X-Wing's shields. This was not for lack of effort on the Dug's part to roll out of the way, he was just late in his attempt. And then the Dug becomes a bullseye, targetted by all. Bolts wizz by the Dug as he banks right and crosses round Ghost 3 to gain some cover fire, "This is Ghost 4, shields down, but otherwise alright. Working on shield power realignment." And with that, once the Dug evades fire from several TIE's, he rolls off to the right a bit more, firing at the first fighter to land shots on him, loosing another volley of red bolts. (Rall) The green lances of energy had over shot her target and Jal'Dana was already making the course corrections to make sure that didn't happen again. Bringing her fighter around she absently turns into a line of fire from another ship. Catching the red lasers on her port shields, the system flickers but it hold, only slightly reducing the power. The ship shudders with the impact and Jal'Dana is bounced in her shock couch. Banking back around she bobs her ship and shakes loose of the first fighter as another streams towards her firing and missing wide. "I'm so popular..oh, here is meat" Pressing hard on the foot peddles and jocking the flight controls she rolls her fighter end over she returns fire on the juking X-wing, Ghost 3. Again, just six pounds of pressure on the trigger and the green shot burst from the wingtips. (Korolov) 'Boomer' stays on his lead fighter. As she banks, he does as well, her tie seems to be drawing all the fire and that is fine with him for the moment, no real damage and she could likely shake off the rebels. AS she chooses a new target he sticks with her and adds his volume of laser fire at Ghost 3 as well. "Watch it Vapor. They seem to have you pegged." (Kesander) "Ghost 8, light 'em up," says Kesander encouragingly as he watches his shots hammer the shields of Rall's craft. "Let's stay on 'em'" adds the Corellian, rolling Ghost 7 to maintain his angle of attack on Jal'dana's TIE and that of her wingman. In the manuever, Sandman's site reticle slips from Rall to her wingman's ship. Instinctively, the Corellina squeezes his triggers. (Raxis) "Ghost 3 to Krayt Control, We're managing so far. Any word on the location of that cap?" Raxis muses to himself over the incoming spray of green blasterfire. Giving himself internal commentary beneath the comm, he grimmaces as his shields are hit for a healthy shot. Watching the shield readout strain he mentally curses his luck on patrols. Soon he was going to get a reputation as a magnet. Gritting his teeth in response, Raxis performs his signature move. Rolling his ship upside down, he pulls up on the stick to nose the X-wing downwards into a roll that sends it upwards on the field of battle. Blasting past a hail of green blasterfire intended for him, he continues his ascent. Squeezing through empty places in the furball, the X-wing soon finds itself pushing its nose downwards. Boosting the thrusters he sends the X-wing into a daredevil barreling roll downwards towards the the white TIE fighter, unleashing a spread of deadly blasterfire and silently dedicating it to Alderaan. (Shovadu) "Ghost 4 in pursuit, leaving you with Turtle on your wing." This comes over the comms as Shovadu moves in on a TIE fighter not far from the one he had been pursuing. "Remaining in close proximity to your tail Raptor." Just to clarify that he isn't getting far off. The Cadet barrel rolls and dives quickly, before pulling up and loosing yet another volley of red blasts at the indicated TIE fighter. (Wolf) As Wolf breaks hard right, his wing man slips into the fire position, with all his laser linked one giant green wad leaps forth and at his last target hoping to knock the rebel out for good. The X-wing was engaged with him and his shields suffered the direct hit. That was a good sign as for as the pilot felt, his lasers were on their mark. The shots were on target, it was up to the X-wing to get out of the way or die. (Rall) This time Jal'Dana's shots hit home, scoring on Ghost 3. She had this pilot scouted and was going to stay right on his six, and see if she could push him from the fight or disable him for good. "Meat" as she had dubbed him was going to get a lesson in proper Imperial manors. "I see that Boomer, she what you can do to shake'em off me" Ghost 3 wants on badly and Dana almost wants him to know who he is up against, but soon enough he'll know. Keeping pace with the X-wing was a simple matter of shifting power from side thruster to her main engines. She uses Raxis personal move and arches up the fighter. Again lining up her shot she separates out her laser controls firing each cannon individually. The four shots trail each other by milliseconds apart. (Korolov) 'Boomer' spins as the X-Wing gets on his six and unloads a volley of blaster fire towards his vessel. Three of the four beams miss him, the other impacting and fizzling on his shields as he struggles to stay on Vapor's wing. He banks the yoke hard to the right as he is given the order to shake the tail, putting his fighter into a hard fast turn bringing his blasters around towards the fighter that shot at him, depressing the weapons studs, he unloads a volley of green death towards the wily Republic Fighter Kessander. (Raxis) Mouth agape, Raxis can hardly believe it. He'd seen someone use his personal move against him before, namely once right after he'd used it on a lone Z-95 headhunter he'd met on his patrol. Scowling at another personal blemish on his service jacket. "Krayt Control this is Ghost 3. I believe the White TIE to be Admiral Rall. Repeat. VIP on the field. Attempting to disable, over." Raxis calls out over the comm as he decides to throw away all of his old tactics and fly by the seat of his pants. His moves become erratic, yet hold to the same general style of flying that he'd used all his career. Perhaps a tell that he'd recognized (or believed to recognize) the white TIE, he banks and rolls inwards. Cutting the thrusters he performs a braking slide in an attempt to tighten his turn radius. Finding it a lucky move, he gets a beat on the port solar fin of Jal'Dana's starfighter. (Shovadu) The hit lands true from Ghost 4, but not true enough to knock out the TIE's shields entirely. The mass of green fire coming the Dug's way results in a quick nose dive, accompanied by a barrel roll to the left. The result is a miss, indeed this pilot decided that he didn't want to die just yet. "Ghost 4 still in pursuit, good firing position...Shields still down." The comms cut off after that transmission and the Dug pulls up on the TIE fighter's 6, loosing another rapid succession of blasts. (Wolf) Wolf's wingman was too busy trying to focus on his shields that the shots and they miss wide right grunting to himself and tries to shake the boogie that he picked up. Righting his spinning TIE he picks his target and fires again at the X-wing (Shovadu) with a solid tone and all lit up on his HUD. (Rall) No wonder meat was shot down with that move last time, it stunk and Jal'Dana even smiled as the shots went wide. "Remind me not to try that stunt again Boomer" Red lasers dance around her ship and she matches the moves that her enemy's X-wing tries to bring at her. Ghost 3's shots go wide and as the snub-nosed fighter screeches past her the TIE responds with a hail of fire. "Well meat, lest see what you have today" (Korolov) "Affirmative Ma'am" Boomer replies to Vapor's coms. He flicks another switch, making slight adjustments to get the X-wing into his firing sights once more. A slight jerk to the right and he has tone, squeezing the firing studs as the small agile fighter trembles releasing four beams of brilliant green light towards his dreaded foe once more, (Kesander). (Kesander) Having dodged one assault from Rall's wingman, the pilot of Ghost 7 is obliged to do so a second time. Fortunately for Kesander, something about the TIE's moving evokes an instinctive reaction in the Corellian and thus Sandman executes a split S manuever that reverses his course and carries him easily away from the hail of green blaster bolts intended to destroy him. Banking hard as he exits the S, the pilot of Ghost 7 once again locks up Rall's wingman in his site reticle and fires on him with quad lasers. (Raxis) After narrowly being hit by a salvo of TIE blaster fire from Jal'dana's ship, Raxis officially feels like a target. Narrowing his eyes, he lowers his brow and goes into his game face. Dodging about through the furball, Raxis performs a series of banks and turns being chased by the the ominous white TIE fighter, unable to shake it. "Ok fine enough of this..." Raxis replies, pulling slightly out of the furball to give him and Jal'Dana some room. Breaking etiquette, he decides a new tactic. "Vee-Ten! Prime a torpedo for a 2 second fuse and ready to drop it at my mark..." He calls out, unable to shake his predator. Opening local channels, he grins to himself as the binary beeping of his droid lets him know the job is done. "Hey Admiral? You're pretty good for a deckwalker...still kept your looks?" He blurts, turning off the local comm channel as he yells at Vee-Ten. "MARK!". Releasing the Proton to float behind him, he fans his S-foils to increase his velocity. Effectively reopening them, he hopes the proton will detonate near her TIE and cause damage as he flies away from the blast radius. "Fox two!" He calls out over his squadron's encoded radio. (Shovadu) Shodavu banks right as the TIE's green bolts come his way, managing to just barely dodge those shots, muttering quietly, "Haven't you learned yet, can't touch this Dug." A moment later he flips on his comm, "Roger that Raptor, do you want Four to disengage and lock onto VIP target?" Once this is said, the X-Wing banks back to the left, rotating 20 degrees port before letting loose another volley of red flame at the TIE he's pursuing. Still, he keeps an ear open for orders to move in on the VIP target, though it would be difficult with an enemy already engaged. (Wolf) The Wingman was having no luck but wasn't giving up on his sole target he wanted to score a kill so bad his insides hurt. Desperately weaving his ship in behind the one X-wing that had been sneaking past him time and time again he fired all four laser cannons again hoping fate was on his side this time. (Dana's NPC firing on Shovadu) (Rall) This was getting them no where fast, it was too congested and too crowed for anyone to get a clean shot off be it Rebel or Imperial pilot everyone was snake bitten and missing. With her wingman damaged it was time to break, for his life was valuable to her and this battle meaningless. Dana was going to press this shot hard and linked up her fire control for one powerful blast, hopefully enough to puncture shields and disable Ghost 3. She wanted to have a 'chat' with Meat. As a torp explodes off her wing, the shrapnel causes light damage to her craft as she flys through it. If the ploy didn't work, she was going to take command of the field and recall the fighters, a Star Destroyer was in the area and she had radioed back to it. "Admiral Rall to the Vindictive, break for bearing 721 mark 229 10 minutes. It's time" Once it joined the fray the field would change, and this skirmish would end. A draw maybe but with No Imperial losses she could live with that. (Korolov) The blasted X-wing keeps elluding the persistant Fighter pilot, As he does a split-S to get away from the more maneuverable Intercepter, 'Boomer' pushes the throttle to the firewall, banking his fighter hard to port, to let his speed and his opponents maneuver bring him right back into the cross hairs of his blaster cannons. Squeezing the trigger, Boomer lets a volley of green lasers arc out at Kessander. (Kesander) "You know, Smokey," says Kesander to his Astromech, "I get the impression this guy doesn't like me." For the third time in less than two minutes, Sandman is obliged to execute a hard manuever to avoid Boomer's green daggers of destruction. A snap barrel roll and a hard bank to port successfully achieves the dodge. However, the Captain does not stop there. The bank continues to turn into a vector roll that's designed to put him on an intercept course with the ship that Audacity has indicated is a priority. As soon as he gets weapons lock on the white TIE, the Corellian squeezes his weapons trigger, sending red hell-fire at Rall's craft. (Raxis) "Copy Krayt, this is Ghost 3. VIP engaged and busy. Turtle, Ghost 4. Break attack and let's bag this VIP. Then, we're going to prepare a run on that corvette." Raxis calls out, twisting and turning through the fight as he and Jal'dana duel outside of the hair ball. Cursing as his ship is partially cooked by a massive salvo from the white TIE fighter, Raxis banks and fights hard to shake her and get a tail. With a bit of hard work, Raxis finally finds himself getting another shot in passing. Taking the opportunity, he opens fire with a rush of red-orange blasterfire, his four wingtips firing in unison to rely on accuracy to score the hit. (Shovadu) And finally the almost intangible Dug takes another hit, his first since the one that knocked out his shields. The shot lands on the port thruster controls and causes some minor hull scorching. The worst of it is a short loss of power to the port thrusters, though power is quick reallocated by the astromech droid, and the Dug is able to bank once more, coming round on the attacking TIE, speaking in his Malastare accented voice over the comms "Ghost 4 hit, just a singe. Guess I'm not untouchable afterall." With the new orders, the Dug swings around and punches his turbos to catch up with the VIP target. It's only moments before he is on target and lets loose a hail of blasterfire of his own. It's his hope that his friendly TIE attacker hasn't followed him. "Ghost 4 engaging VIP." (Rall) With the Vindictive entering the area the TIE squadrons all reform and begin to exit towards the Star Destroyer, they wanted to get out of that ship's vicious firing Arcs. Wolf's Squadron reaches the relative safety fires, just as the gunners open up on all vectors. The laser screen was deadly and very few ships could survive in the hail of energy. Ghost 3 had fired torpedoes at her, which was very unsporting of him and while the light damage was of no real threat, the anti star fighter fire coming from the Vindictive was and that was what sent Jal'Dana and her wing man from the think of it. "All craft regroup on the Vindictive" The Admiral set out her order that same cool raspy tone as she had at the start of the fight. Even withdrawing it seemed her fighter was a favorite target and Ghost 7's shots land harmlessly on her shields Ghost 3 and then a third Ghost. Her ship passes by them all with grace, skill and ease. She was putting on a clinic. As Ghost 3 streaked by, she fired a single shot in parting, just a reminder to himshe was out here and she owned him. (Korolov) 'Boomer' does as ordered, banking towards the Victory-class Star Destroyer. He pushes the throttle to flank speed, leaving the furball behind as he follows Vapor back to the command ship. (Raxis) A few sparks resound over his comm as it's apparent he may have some damage to either his communication or electrical equipment. "Yeah I'...doi- fine I might have a --- in the electr-- --stem." Raxis replies over the comm as his obviously maneuverable X-wing races out of the range of fire and meets back up with the group. Pulling into formation alongside Shovadu and Kesander, Raxis dips his wings and gives a thumbs up from inside his cockpit to let them know he's okay. (Shovadu) Ghost 4 breaks contact as ordered and swings back around towards the Audacity, "Ghost 4 taking up positions on the Audacity again. Shields are offline, and my port thrusters are acting up, but all in all I'm operational." (Kesander) "Good work today people," comes the reply from Ghost 7. "Audacity's in one piece, we gave those bastards something to think about, and all our brothers and sisters are coming home alive. That's as much of a success as we can hope for under the circumstances," explains Kesander over the tactical channel. "All ships with battle damage are ordered to put down in Audacity's hangar. All other ships resume escort formation. We will be rotating in for replenishment and rearmament by flight over the next three hours. Sandman, over." (Raxis) "Ghost Th-- opy, retu--ing to Auda---ty" Raxis calls out over the comm, as he tilts his ship and moves into the docking line for the Audacity. Even before landing, Vee-Ten can be seen patching wires from his seat in the rear of his X-wing. (Shovadu) "Copy that Sandman, Ghost 4 en route to hangar." comes the reply from the Dug in Ghost 4. It's only a few moments before he is in the hangar, engaging landing procedures. Once set down completely the hatch whines as it opens up and the Dug goes about getting out of the harnesses holding him into the seat.
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