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| - The Corporate Sector Authority's picket fleet was nearing completion of the orders that had been given. Slowly, it's fist was closing around the planet to lock it off from the rest of the galaxy. Each of the capital ships was now beginning to release a swarm of fighters from their bellies, which race ahead of their larger counterparts to make formations and attempt to close the small hole that is still left in the group. It was like water pouring down into the world and soon they would be able to envelope it. The only object that stands in the middle of the only 'opening' in the blockade is that of the stationary space station, whose guns are now charging, coming online, and waiting for their targets. Asingle X-wing leading a Lambda class shuttle begins moving rapidly out of the atmosphere into space, the old bird, much faster than the traditional models. Cigarette, unlit, hanging in his mouth Tyler Damion was at the controls of the Spirits. The problem at hand wasn't much his escape but rather Dibar's and he'd help his partner out best he can. The old Corellian's eyes widening as he looks down at his threat displays and heads up readings, "Well blast Nate, we've got our work cut out for us. These CSAers got themselves what I'd like to call a pretty damn good military budget. I'm getting to old for this." The pilot's hazel eyes turn grim as he studies the situation, "They aren't in the perfect position yet buddy lets make it right, find us a weak spot." The droid whistles an affirmative and highlights an area of the formation. Tyler nods, the Golan platform, the pilot gulps, "Eh, it's been done before, I think I did once, when I was like twenty" he mutters , accelerating to attack speed and locking his S-foils into attack position, shields raise, and weapons heat up, Tyler was forty-two now. Like any great movie, a pair of ships exhausts flash forward toward insurmountable odds their engines roaring forward to face whatever fate may deal them. The Droid whistles again and Tyler's eyes widen, "Well being a Corellian and having all that dumb luck is paying off!" he says tapping his consul and keying his communicator, "Adder, Fossil here, follow me through I'll make us a path to freedom, got some mates on the other side! YEEEEHAW!!!" he smiles leaving the channel open to keep him and his team updated, opening another channel to the Aegis vessels nearby at the edge of the system. "You boys are a sight for sore eyes!" he grins, "It's going to get hot and heavy, how about a bit of support, sending strategic data." Tyler keys a transmitter and sends Paladin and Dibar his plans he and Nate made up on the fly. They would have to be fast, they had the element of surprise, but Fleets were known to correct mistakes and close up holes. It's all about timing. The Distances between the combatants would close up in no time, it would be a rough adventure, but one worth remembering in the annuals of drunken miscreants and their long history of survival andor death. Hanging in a deep position well out of reach of the planetary sensors lies the corvette Night Scourge. Bane of the CSA these past months its presence has gone rather unnoticed in the short time it has been here. It may seem mad to bring this ship here, but there is a reason and the moving picket fleet indicates that their time is nearly at hand. The bothan commander stands on the bridge watching the going on in the system and issues orders. "All hands ready your stations, looks like our boys are coming out. Move us in closer until those corporate punks can actually see us. Lets see if they consider us a worthwhile target to chase." Smiling Paladin looks over the busy crew as the corvette moves forward. The comm station lights up and the crewman passes on Tyler's information to Paladin and he nods. "Steady as she goes." In the Lambda shuttle, Dibar grabs hold of his flight seat restraints and tightens them up a bit. Beside Dibar's pilot chair, L3-ET is fastened onto the floor in front of the controls, and plugged into the ship through it's 'scomp'. The droid beeps a warning, and turns it's domed head towards Dibar. He flicks open the communications channel to Tyler's starfighter, and leans forward towards the microphone. "Roger that, Fossil. Throttle's open all the way, and I'm following you through." Dibar looks to 'Leet', pointing out the cockpit window. "Leet, shields up. Charge up the forward guns. If they go head to head with us, put deflectors forward. Otherwise, keep 'em evened out." Gritting his teeth, Dibar leans forwards and opens the channel to Tyler's ship again. "Fossil, I hope you've got a plan to deal with that station up ahead, or this could be a real short escape.", the mercenary bites out. With the planet behind the pair of smaller craft, the gunners on the station are reluctant to begin firing until they get quite a bit closer. After all, the chances of hitting were near miniscule and the collateral damage on the planet would outweigh all of their paychecks combined for over a month. The large mass sits ahead of the pair, ominously awaiting their arrival. The fleet, with a better angle at the two escapees, starts to open fire at an extreme range in hopes of getting a lucky shot or just scaring them enough to get them to mess up in front of the station. And so, it all begins. They say the first moves in strategy are pre-planned and here begins those moves. Only something irresistible could alter the course of events at this point. On the fleets's sensor screens, that very something starts to show up very faintly. A plan?! Dibar was asking for a plan?!?! Tyler shakes his head, they were escaping they didn't have time to sit around in a war room and point at maps. The old Corellian ace just shakes his head, "Yeah I got a plan around here somewhere." He mutters looking over his consoles, "Hey! Nate! Where did I put that flight manual!" he says jokingly, knowing his channels were open. He just shakes his head, "Let's not put our scopes on that Golan, those buggers have those anti-targeting systems that fire missiles and stuff, just keep her on visuals buddy." The droid whistling an affirmative. The X-wing moves quickly through the emptiness of space and executing a rolling maneuver as he sees paladin and his boys closing in, "Paladin, got anything that can play with a Golan in that bit of a fleet of yours?" Tyler chuckles, "Where is that bloody B-wing squadron of yours eh?" The screens weren't looking good, the odds were just against them, they were rolling the dice on this one. How to deal with a Golan, Tyler was sure he got it in the Imperial Naval Academy training back in the day, oh no, never mind, Rebels never had Golans that early, maybe in the Rebel training? His mind thinks for a bit, nope that was all hit and fades nonsense, and then again they were defiantly fading. The problem was the fact they had to fade THROUGH the enemy instead of away from them. Like any master tactician Tyler comes to the conclusion, "Well boys we're just going to see what we can do on the fly and roll with the punches and I'll be sure to write the Imperial and Republic academies a nasty letter after this, for lack of sufficient training." Then came the firing, the ship begins to move evasive, "Hope that piece of junk of yours can move Adder because here we go!" Tyler pushes the nose of his X-wing down toward the Station it's the only place to go! Tyler keys his weapon systems and links his proton torpedoes they could use the explosion for a brief window of cover. The droid beeps, "No I don't need a farking targeting computer I can see it just fine!" Tyler growls, "We just need to get closer!" The Droid whistles loudly with an electronic bit of shock the words on his screen appear translating, "CLOSER?!?!?!" The Scourge continues its inbound coruse for the planet and picket fleet. Perhaps only now they would be registering on sensors, but the outbound shuttle and its escort were getting close to the battle statin and the defensive ships. Time to make their presence more heart warmingly felt thought Paladin. "All forward batteries, target that battle station and open fire. Make sure you get each shot on target." The comm chirps to life as Tyler continues his banter and asks for assistance. Well that they could offer. As it seems the fleet hadn't lauched any interceptors yet that left a big hole in the defense for them to play with. He issues the order, "Launch the fighters and tell them to make as much of a mess of that Golan as they can from range. Send the gunship too." As the orders are passed the hangars open ready to expel their occupants, the corvette drawing tantilising closer to recognition for the CSA. "He's crazy.", Dibar mutters to himself as he sees Tyler's fighter aim itself towards the enormous battle station before them. "He's out of his frag'n mind, Leet. I like this guy." Dibar grips the controls a bit more tightly now, and braces himself in his chair. "Hang on, Leet!", Dibar yells out. He tries juking back and forth to avoid the scattered incoming turbolasers, and then kicks the shuttle into a turn to follow Tyler's starfighter's wake. Sitting beside Dibar, Leet beeps in alarm. "Boss. You do know we are getting within effective range of that Golan station's guns." The droid's voicebox emits. "Despite your pilot friend being crazy, and you liking it, I don't think that this is the--" "Leet! Shut up!", Dibar orders. Here we go, the plunge begins. The space station opens up with a beginning volley that is short and strong, directed at the pair of smaller craft. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the station, guns are swiveling from covering the sides to cover near the blip on the sensors screens as initial communications are begun. The fleet also starts to send a portions of itself to move to intercept the incoming group just in case. At this point, it only appears as an inbound trading vessel, so 2 Marauders and a compliment of fighters is split off. Behind the two escaping vessels, the fleet meets itself and fighters press ahead and open fire from the rear of the shuttle and X-Wing. There was nowhere to go except out to space and past the station now. The Corellian smiles pressed back into his chair by the inertia, avoiding blasts from the station, the compensator dialed to nine to keep him from being turned into paste. Tyler smiles, "Almost there!" he says. The droid whistling and beeping: "Any closer sir and we'll be toast, not even the spirits can evade all of that fire power, not that I'm doubting you or anything Boss, but I'd like to stay alive." Tyler growls, "Ah shut up you bucket of bolts I've had it, it up to here with your wanting to survive, count on it, the wife would be mighty angry if I don't come back home for dinner. You doubt the spirit of Corellians and the power of whiskey!" The Corellian starts working on a few calculations, "We'll fire one torpedo now and delay the other just a second." He informs the droid, "The gas from it should be enough to offer us a bit of a mask and play a few tricks on their targeting scanners." The droid replies: "And ours" Tyler shifts his eyes, "Not important! We're not using ours!" he depresses the trigger letting a torpedo fly toward the station. If all goes well it'd hit the shields, explode, create cloud of proton gas and they could scoot by this area of the station, the other torpedoes was for the side, the backside of the station, well lets just hope Paladin knows what he's doing. "Hang on Adder this is going to be bumpy!" he warns the torpedo moving toward the station, along with flying through proton gases they'd get the last portions of the explosion's wake. Tyler takes a tin out of his pocket and takes a swig and grins looking back at the droid behind him, "Just like old times eh!" he laughs aloud the X-wing doing a roll and during it's belly to face the side of the Golan station, He pushes the nose down just long enough to release his other torpedoes, "Bombs away!" he grins, hoping the delay was calculated correctly. Droids can be some pessimistic, just a sign their programmers couldn't find dates. His plan had to work, and if it did it'd be the next chapter in the Hero's guide to really nifty escapes. From the hangar of the Scourge emerges a powerful array of assault fighters and bombers, followed closely by the sleek lines of a Corellian Gunship. As the gunship clears the corvette the fighters form up around the capital vessel with the half squadron of B-Wings falling in on the forward flanks, 2 Z-105s covering the dorsal side of the vessel while the pair of Scimitar bombers align on the ventral side. On the bridge of the Scourge paladin nods to the comm station. "Tell the assault group to make a full salvo onto the station. We may be able to dent those shields and force them to rethink. Helm turns us about 180 degrees and hold our position, all batteries that can bear keep firing on that station and any ships that look like they're heading in our direction. Can't make things too easy for them." The lambda shuttle, Archaeoverputus, rocks as a laser bolt slams up against the shields. The ship veers a few degrees off course and then corrects itself. The ship rolls slightly to the starboard side, as a pair of turbolasers flash past where part of the ship had been. "I know!", Dibar barks out to his droid tersely. "Kill non-essential system power. Cargo bay lights, boarding ramp power--anything we don't need immediately. Dump it all into engines and deflectors! Do it quick!", the mercenary orders. Dibar quickly toggles the communications system on, and transmits to Tyler. "Fossil, this is Adder. We're taking fire here. Shields are hold'n for the moment, but I don't think we can take too much more." Things now change drastically in the eyes of the CSA commanders, who now send more forces in the direction of the incoming ships. Clearly, this is not the simple trading vessel they had thought after it had launched a Corvette and fighters on top of ignoring their attempts to communicate. Meanwhile, the stations cannons start to fire their all at the pair as they race past in an attempt to make it around her. While a clear majority of the shots are sure to not hit, one here or there does hit one of their own by chance, knocking it a bit off course and revealing the blueish haze of shielding around them. Still hot on their tail, the mass of fighters keeps on firing away as best they can. It was all about the close calls, that's what Tyler's life was all about. Endor, Hoth, even Yavin. He was an old man now, by pilot standards, every major portion of his life involved some sort of overwhelming odds and narrow victory or escape. It was happening all over again. The adrenaline was pumping\; the spirit of adventure was back in his blood, the taste of excitement on his lips, quenching a ten year drought. The old Corellian nods to himself, "Well, Adder, you're going to have to hold on! I don't leave comrades behind." Tyler jerking his fight up and in front of the shuttle and sharing shields with him. "Blast it Nate, if we survive this remind me to buy Paladin, Dibar, and all the boys a few drinks! Adjust shields, seventy percent to the front, thirty to the back" He looks down at his control panels, now it was a matter of calculating a jump so that once they are clear they can get out of this mess. His eyes scan down a list of systems while piloting, that's why 'ground pounders' would never understand the amount of work pilots have to do. They may fight sitting down but they are always handling an overwhelming amount of data. "That looks good, Smuggler's Run trade route, it'll give us a nice quiet ride back into New Republic space." He says with a grin, "Nate transmits jump coordinates to Dibar and Paladin's group, that's the direction we are going!" The droid whistles and beeps a reply: "What about Pirates?" "Paladin is with us, he's the best equipped Pirate within ten parsecs." He says with a sure voice continuing to evade constant fire. The X-wing was fast, nimble, and almost ready to clear the station, the pilot keeping his vector at different angle so that he keeps himself close enough to aid Dibar when possible. The ships, now, moving past the station finally seeing Paladin's full group and the empty space ahead of them, it was a beautiful sight. The Corellian Spirits executes a barrel roll away from enemy forces and that familiar shout of joy erupts over his side of the comlink. "See Nate, I told you to trust me." Tyler says with a grin. Nate's electronic reply, "I never doubted you sir, and sir as I am programmed to I will forget to remind you of your offer to buy drinks." "That's the spirit buddy, that's the spirit." Tyler grins, keeping a serious posture and avoiding shots from behind. From the central command of the gunship the order is given for the assault group to fire, sending a wall of red and blue comets hurtling towards the battle station. Pairs of proton torpedoes explode from the tubes of the B-Wings while concussion missiles home in from the gunship and other bombers. The whole combat group slows and the gunship begins its turn around to prepare for an exit. Laser batteries opening us as it does so to hepl cover the retreat. Afterall the vessel was an anti starship platform so it was tactically wise to use it as such, keeping the heads down from the vast number of enemey fighters drawing closer to them and the fugitives. Paladin moves to the tactical display board as the Scourge turns and the view screen only displays open space. Nodding to the comm officer to acknowldege he heard Tylers last comment he points to the helm. Plot that jump course and inform the assault group to do the same. All ships are to make their own jumps out of here as soon as the order is given. In the meantime keep those boys in the clear." Someone shouts, "Screw it. This is mine!" Dibar rocks forward in his command chair once again, as another laser blast skips off the shuttle's deflector shields. The ship shakes a bit, and wobbles in it's course. It is most apparent that Dibar was having trouble keeping control of the ship while taking fire. Tightly grasping the controls, Dibar slowly re-orients himself again, as the shuttle nears the the Golan station and then passes by it. The mercenary spares a glance over at one of the secondary data displays, and does a double take as he sees information being transmitted from Tyler's droid. "Leet! We're getting jump coordinates. Plot us a damn course, and stand by on the hyperdrives!", Dibar yells out. It's then that warning lights begin flashing all over the control console. Dibar curses colorfully, and grabs hold of his seat restraints. "Drek! Power transfer blew out one of the relays." He yanks the restrains off, and grabs a fire exstinquisher from above the cockpit entrance. The mercenary steadies himself with one hand against the bulkhead and turns back to his droid. "Fire in the cargo bay! Take control Leet, and tell Tyler's droid what's happening!", he yells out, and then plunges through the door and into the smoke eminating from the aft hold. The squadrons of fighters are beginning to gain on the _Archaeoveruptus_ while the station's own fire is calmed a minor amount by the barrage against it's shields. Each and every hit the fighters manage to score upon the shuttle only seems to fuel them to go faster and the number of them keeps on growing and growing. The barrage of fire from the incoming pirate group, however, manages to score a few hits. After a little bouncing around, the numbers are thinned out slightly, but enough to at least keep the small flame of hope alive. As this occurs, the CSA forces destined for the pirate battle group open their own salvo at range from both sides in hopes of getting a few lucky shots in on the bombers. It would only be a little while now before they would converge inbetween the fleeing pair and the incoming group of pirates. It was all too close to really be able to tell who would arrive first... Now out and among allies the ships were now off to the races. Tyler grins, "This is where things get interesting gents!" he looks over his shoulder and begins checking his visuals. The X-wing then banks hard to the right, "Look alive Adder, time to get moving!" The sleek superiority fighter moves hard off to the right and away from the fleet and her Golan space station, and rockets toward the Night Scourge and her companion ships, it was time to take full advantage of the Aegis group's fire power and cover. Tyler's hazel eyes scanning the situation on his Heads up Display, his goal was to keep the enemy behind him. That is until Nate begins whistling something about Dibar's ship, "What do you mean there is a fire on board?" the Corellian growls jerking his yoke as the ship breaks off it's lead position and then rolls in behind the Shuttle, "We'll just have to do this the old fashion way!" he shouts looking behind him, and getting a check on his visuals. The Corellian grabs his tin and drains the rest of its contents with a wince he places the container down behind his seat. The IRDs were the problem. "Paladin get those Z-105s over here and help me clean off some of these starfighters." Rather than turning Tyler just cuts his engines for a moment letting some of the enemy fighters pass by him. He then re-engages his ship's engines and evading a few cannon shots in the process, a perfectly executed maneuver that was twenty-five years of experience in a cockpit put to good use! He then begins choosing his targets keeping in mind the direction he was wanting to fly. "Time to clean off Adder's tail, Nate!" the Corellian's eyes widen as he keys his targeting computer and gets his protons armed, "Wonder how much those buggers would like to have one of these sent into it's rear? Eh?" He squeezes the trigger after picking his target. The Scourge continues its long range barrage of the CSA forces, hoping the fire will prove a deterent to give the fleeing ships enough time. At this range the damage they were dealing to most vessels was insignificant, however the smaller unshielded fighters of the CSA would be thinking twice about it all. Paladin continues to issue orders to keep their offence on track and covering the best areas to increase the chances of survival for their friends. He notices the problems the slower shuttle is having and curses, contemplating his options. The gunship alters its course to vector in on the outbound friendlies without placing itself in a position of not being able to jump out of the system. The accompanying fighters jockey for position around the ship whilst trying to avoid the incoming fire while still being able to fire back. As Tyler's X-Wing slows new orders come to the assault group and the gunship powers up and heads for the shuttle, guns blazing at the pursuing fighters, risking its shields to help the Lambda. The bombers group off and preapre for defensive measures to cover the escape without getting much closer to the picket fleet. Back in the aft cargo hold of the Archaeoveruptus, Dibar grabs a respirator mask from inside a cabinet marked 'emergency', and drops it quickly over his face. Working quickly, he begins hosing down the fire spreading along the powerlines bolted to the side of the bulkhead. The fire extinquisher in his hands shoots out a cloud of white inert gas out at the fire, cutting off usable air for the fire to use. Soon the entire hold is filled with a mix of black smoke and white gas. The flames are half under control when Dibar's ship takes yet another hit to the shields. The mercenary is knocked off his feet and sent hurling into the side of the hull. It takes him a moment for him to stand up again, and as he does so he again begins battling the fires. Dibar glanced at the door leading to the cockpit once, and resisted the urge to run back in to make sure everything was alright. He focused on putting the blaze out before it reached the ammunition and explosives that were stored on the other side of the bay. Meanwhile, inside the cockpit, L3-ET was in control of the shuttle as it raced away from the orbiting battle station, and towards empty space. The droid beeped in alarm as more fire came in. "Why does the boss always get me into troubles like this?", the droid wondered aloud to itself. Several of the CSA fighters explode as laser fire makes contact with their hulls. The scrap metal left behind manages to hit several others, creating a domino effect down the line a ways. However, there are still quite a few left to keep on firing on the pair. Up ahead, the second group fires it's lasers at the incoming pirate fighters and then bank in to fire at the sides of the escaping duo while flying directly at each other and taking fire from the gunship, which manages to pick off several of them as well. Indeed, they were now resorting to desperate tactics in order to catch the two at any cost. Scoring a hit was always a pilot's best high watching his torpedo fly into the back of one of the fighters he grins, "Adder, we're almost clear!" he says banking in on another but his forward motion keeping him moving away from the gravity well of the world and those things around it. "I got an eta of about thirty seconds!" Tyler says looking back at his droid, "Blast it Nate! Soon as Dibar is clear we're jumping out of the system!" Tyler instead of firing on another target breaks off and moves back side-by-side Dibar's shuttle and offers him a thumbs up, now making a general call into his comlink, "All Ships is his Damion, break off attack and jump to lightspeed, job well done!" he calls out, "See you boys at the Smuggler's Run, always a wonderful bit of a trade route, if I do say so myself." Tyler smiles shaking his head and pushes the lever forward to lightspeed. The X-wing accelerates the stars become lines and the ship lurches into lightspeed and to safety. The Old man pulling his helmet off and ruffling his air, he was actually sweating! Good fighting, sometimes it was good to be a hero. "Well Nate, looks like we're back in business, haven't lost our touch eh." The droid whistles a faithful affirmative extremely happy to be in one peace. The Archaeoveruptus, still under the controls of Dibar's droid, banks slighly to starboard. Unfortunately, this takes it right into a stream of fire from several Corporate Sector fighters. The first couple of shots hit against the shields. The next group of lasers do not impact the shields at all. They go right through the top of the shuttle's dorsal fin. The fin itself is amputated from the rest of the ship and goes flying off into space. The shuttle itself continues on it's flight path, but looks even more shakey than before. Inside the cockpit, L3-ET looks over the damage assessment, and sounds out an electronic moan. "The boss is gonna be pissed. He just had that thing fixed.", the droid says. "What's our status?", Dibar says as he climbs back into the cockpit, his words muffled by the mask over his face. The interior of the ship was still filled with smoke, that the environmental systems were struggling to filter out. Apparently the fires were out, but the bleeding cut above his right eyebrow suggests that it wasn't easy. The mercenary pulls himself into the command seat and straps himself in just in time for L3-ET to shout out a warning. "Hang on, boss!", the droid says, as the ship shudders a bit and the starlines before them blur. The shuttle rockets into hyperspace a few moments after Tyler's fighter, and leaves the scene of the battle. As the shuttle finally makes its rather shaky jump to hyperspace Paladin issues the orders to his forces, "Tell all ships to make the jump out to Smugglers. Hold our position until all others are clear." The comm officer issues the orders and the gunship is the first to comply. As incoming fire from the nearing fighters starts spattering against its shields the ship rotates slightly on course as the hyperdrive activates and shoots the ship into the tunnels of hyperspace. Soon to follow are the smaller forms of the bombers as the blink out of the system in rapid succession. Once all are clear Paladin moves back to his command chair and opens up a broad range cahnnel in the system. "CSA forces we've told you before, don't play with the Loose Cannons or mess with our friends...you'll regret it. Out." Signalling to the helmsman they make the jump to hyperspace after their companions.
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