| abstract
| - It is the first time Flight Officer Molokai and Wing Commander Dante have been in their cockpits at the same time, this time being much different than the last as they're facing off against each other rather than working as a team. Liza has performed her pre-flight check and then a second time before she eases her fighter out of the hangar bay where she waits for Dante to launch, excitement gnawing at her belly. The fact that this is a competition not an all-out no holds barred combat situation makes this a unique sort of launch for Dante. To her recollection, the last time she and Molokai signed up for an exercise like this they got their collective tail feathers set afire by Inrokana and Rall. With that firmly in mind she launches from the Inquisitor and spins neatly to being a steep climb, scanning for Molokai's fighter with the intention to not be an easy target. Flipping her comms on once she sees Dante has taken off, Liza can't help but to goad her commanding officer, something that will only be any good if she can back up her words with actions, something she's aware of somewhere in the back of her mind. "Did I mention how much I dislike losing, ma'am? It's that darn competitive streak. I have one as wide as a sarlacc is long.." That's all she says pushes her throttles forward, maneuvering her ship towards the other woman's fighter while opening fire, nothing held back. With her ship to ship comm open though silent from her end, Dante clearly hears Molokai's opening remarks - as Dante prefers to think of them, that is - and guessing (correctly) that Liza will be ready to push the envelope right out of the gate, Dante watches for the telltales that indicate that Liza is going to maneuver and open fire as soon as her targeting computer lines up and sings out. Dante waits for that telltale movement then rolls neatly to the side and engages the thrusters of her own fighter and easily avoids the incoming fire. Having maneuvered her own fighter into a spiral, Dante opens fire in return from that position, aiming upwards at the underbelly of Liza's fighter. It doesn't really surprise Liza that she gets a hit on her already, the shaking of her ship not even causing her to flinch like it used to before although it does irate her something awful. She scans her readouts quickly before trying it again, angling her ship down and hopefully into enough of an angle that she'll be behind the other pilot's ship as she moves away. The Sarian fires again, hopefully getting Dante in her can, so to speak. In a maneuver eerily reminiscent to a holo-vid, Dante waits until Molokai maneuvers around to her 6, angles her ship down at a slight angle then cuts power to her thrusters and lets Molokai sail right on by and the blaster fire pings on empty space. Dante powers up her thrusters again, enough to be maneuverable as she opens fire on Molokai then pulls her fighter into a steep climb, rolling at a 180 once there to get a good view of Molokai's fighter. Another shot and another hit, something that has Liza muttering to herself as her shields basically short out, leaving her hull to take some of the laser fire as a result. With a mutter, she pulls the stick back hard, trying to catch up with Dante who has placed herself above her. With a sneer, she fingers the trigger for a moment, taking a second to align her fellow pilot's fighter in her sights, waiting until she has tone before trying to shoot again. From her vantage point, Dante silently observes Molokai maneuvering again, checks her sensors to determine how much hull damage her fellow fighter has already taken. With her fighter constantly in motion, she dances neatly around the incoming fire, watching it again pin neatly an empty expanse of cold space. She slides her fighter closer to Molokai's and opens fire, aiming this time at the thrusters of Molokai's fighter in the attempt to disable Molokai's fighter instead of just piling more damage on top of previous damage. "For the love of the Maker.." Liza sighs to herself, hoping that isn't loud enough for her to have heard her. Once again, she's hit, this time in the aft of her fighter which causes some damage to her thrusters. With a frown, she manages to get her ship pointed towards Dante's, her eyes narrowing slightly as she shoots again, once more not bothering to try and be patient, her annoyance getting to her. "Nicely done!" is Dante's only voiced remark as Molokai's return fire - albeit hastily and somewhat angrily aimed - impacts against her shields with enough force to take them down considerably. Dante is, of course, proud to see her fellow pilot get off a solid shot when she hadn't been able to do so far in this exercise. Angling her fighter again in a swooping curve that spins her half way again around Molokai's fighter, Dante opens return fire once her targeting computer sings out the tone. The interior of Liza's cockpit begins to glow red, causing her to grunt as warning alarms begin to sound at the same time, something she silences quickly by the flipping of a few switches. "Thanks.." she replies quickly to Dante's compliment although it is one she feels like she doesn't deserve at all, all things considered. With more difficulty than she had during her last pass, she eventually gets the TIE turned so that she can get Dante in her sights, she hopes, and another shot's let loose. Warning sounds go off in Dante's fighter as well, that especially annoying one that indicates that shields are well and truly down. Now, typically speaking, this would be about the time when Dante would start to get that twitchy instinct to use her fighter as a battering ram. However.. this is the exception to that rule. Not properly anticipating the arc of Molokai's return fire, Dante managed to neatly maneuver right into the path of it instead of away. In for a credit, however, in for a pound. She continues her maneuver which brings her closer to Molokai and returns fire, aiming again at the thrusters with the continued attempt to make Molokai's fighter unmanageable. The joy of having actually hit Dante and more than once is quelled as Liza's ship is shaken once more, the fact that she's this much more closer to 'death' annoying her to no ends. "At least I can try one more time.." And that she does indeed do, some how getting her limping Interceptor to turn around, after a bit of fancy stick-work and some sweet talk (to the fighter, not Dante, of course!) to boot. What she assumes will be her last shot is sent off towards the opposition's ship along with a prayer that it'll find its mark. Molokai's return fire had just barely missed her, while Dante's had - through a fluke of luck (good or ill) - struck Molokai's fighter and added more damage to the fighter's hull. Dante made a close pass of Molokai's fighter, narrowly avoiding the incoming return fire as she spins her fighter around and lines up for another shot. It isn't in Dante to pray, she instead makes a quick bit of mental calculations, paints Molokai's fighter and lets fly with another round. It may have been a result of that hurriedly muttered prayer or perhaps it's evidence of Molokai's skill. Either way, Dante's shot misses its target, either having gone wide or some how managing to have been dodged even though the fighter she's in is sluggish as a lizard on Hoth. She has to fight her controls again, this time to get it to climb up and loop over, a tricky move considering how shot up it is. With a nod, she shoots again, this time waiting until Dante's ship is at a better angle before her - Liza's not wanting to leave anything up to chance. Dante silences a few more of those annoying warnings that sound off. The gist of which, is always, 'danger danger bad things have happened - stop the bad things from happening any more!', or something that amounts to a warning. She's certain that the technicians that actually punch these fighters out of the molds don't realize how annoying the warning sounds are. It's at this point that she makes a goal in her life: track down the designers of these things, strap them to a chair, then subject them to one endless standard day of listening to warning sounds - klaxons - beeps - sirens, etc. While making that monumental decision she works the grumpy controls of her fighter and brings her own back around in a shallow climb and fires back at Molokai. "You know, I can't help but to feel bad for the mechs who have to repair these fighters." Liza manages to say while grunting from the effort she has to use while banking to the left, the display of which looks almost like a banth rolling up onto its side instead of a graceful fighter that's being piloted by someone skillful. Oh no. It is not a pretty side indeed. Neither is the stunt that she uses to pull the sluggish machine to where it can face Dante again, Liza having to use line of sight now rather than relying on her flight computers and targeting systems which are on their last legs. With a wince, she squeezes the trigger, the front of her ship illuminated for a moments as the lasers are fired. Dante makes a sound that is suspiciously like a laugh in return to Molokai's comment, "Imagine what they'll have to after we face Rall or Inrokana, and have to have our fighters towed back to the hangar deck," Dante responds over the open ship to ship comm. Her sense of humor, it would seem, is fully operational whereas her ship is, to say the least, not particularly happy and showing it. That fuse that acts up in Dante's console begins to go haywire and the lighting starts to get a bit buggy and sporadic. Not entirely trusting to the HUD or the TC, Dante battles her fighter around to come back for another pass, opening fire as she does so. "At least it won't be messy like..." A pause as Liza has to pull something clever out of her backside just then, the shot coming way too close for her to dare try to carry on a conversation with the Wing Commander at the moment. Once she's able to, she coughs in surprise, her eyes a bit wide as that one could've easily been the end of her. "Wow. Er...what was I saying. Never mind.." She slips herself back around, doing the one thing that has actually managed to serve her well the last couple of passes, once more trying to get Dante into her sights via eyeballing it opposed to relying on equipment that has gone mostly shoddy on her while shooting. Dante chuckles quietly in the cold confines of the cockpit of her fighter, silencing yet another round of noisy warning sounds. The HUD is entirely shorted out at this point, the controls more than sluggish and downright disobedient as she feels her entire fighter shudder from nose to tail with the impact. Angling her fighter at somewhat of an oblique angle towards Liza's she opens fire again, battling the instinct to get out a rock and throw THAT at this point or offer to engage in hand to hand once both fighters are sufficiently banged up. "Well...darn.." Liza says in shock, her voice held in a stunned murmur. "I..well, congratulations." She smiles as she says that, genuinely pleased that Dante won. She then looks about her and then sighs as she adds, "Guess now is as good of a time as to radio for help. See you back at the ship." Dante brings her fighter around to rest in space right alongside Liza's, which - at this point - is no easy feat as her ship is giving up the last warning sounds of giving up the ghost itself. "Good fight. VERY good fight. Do it like that every time," she says, pride evident in her tone of voice, "no guts - no glory, after all."
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)