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Early Morning Dog Fight! [GM] (Closed) - rythmicjea - 06-28-2021
TheTraveler — 05/24/2021
Early Morning Dog Fight
Capital City of Austerity,
Delphin, Baklid VI
10.28.0968
“Lysire!” Sinya screamed over the intercom, “get that damn fighter off our tail.” Even before she had ended her most recent rant to the young tail gunner, Sinya was forced to jerk the controls of the Shadow to the left. This caused the large craft to roll on to its left side into a tight left bank. As the night sky disappeared and ground slowly rolled into view, Sinya could see red hot bolts of plasma shooting past the canopy.
Lysire’s voice screeched over the intercom, “you know, you keep putting me back here when the Droid has a better aim than ME!” The sounds of the twin cannons firing could be heard over the intercom. The astromech droid let out a scream announcing his disagreement. “What do you mean I am a better shot,” Lysire exclaimed.
Sinya pulled back the throttle and pulled the controls up, “Will you two shut up and pay attention to your tasks,” Sinya grunted as the force of gravity grew greatly. The ground vanished under the craft as the nose pulled up. The Shadow shuttered under a new series of hits. The ship groaned, low air speed alarms blared, Sinya felt the craft go into a stall. Both the shield and stabilizer alarms triggered filling the flight deck with new sounds. She didn’t need the intercom to hear both Lysire and Wraith scream out their surprise at the sudden maneuver.
___
“Wraith, I want those stabilizers back, NOW!” Sinya called out as she silenced the two alarms. She loved the Shadow, but it wasn’t designed as a fighter. Despite being the cheapest and worse craft in the galaxy, these Z-95/BLT uglies were giving the Shadow a run for its money. Four BLT engines on a Z-95 body gave these uglies unmatched straight-line speed and reasonable fire power. The only thing Sinya had on these uglies was that the Shadow, despite being nearly three times larger, was more maneuverable. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Sinya was pushing the Shadow well beyond its structural threshold in some of her crazier maneuvers.
She pushed the controls down and lowered the nose as a pair of uglies shot past the Shadow. “Got you bastards now!” she said pulling the trigger. Two powerful blasts from the wing mounted light turbolasers made short work of one ugly while the other twisted out of the range of fire.
“Damnit,” Sinya cursed as she shifted her head to track where the fighter vanished to. She watched him dump power into this speed as he rocketed for the deck. She was about to turn the Shadow to give chase when Lysire chimed in.
“I got two more coming in, low,” Lysire cried out then added, “these guys are coming in fast!” The sound of Lysire’s cannons once more filling the intercom network. “Damnit, I can’t target them…..they dropped below the ship!”
___
Once more Wraith called out. “No, it doesn’t work like that,” Sinya said harshly. “They can already see us! So no, we can’t engage the stealth system. All that would do is give away our only ace without helping us.”
She pulled the Shadow over in to a roll and pushed the throttle forward as far as she could. The heavier Shadow raced for the ground, “I’ll do my best to keep them above us,” Sinya cried out as she watched the speed jump and the ground race toward her.
The lights indicating the right stabilizer status changed from red to green. Just in that moment, the Shadow shook as laser fire danced across the dorsal plating. “Damnit!” Sinya screamed as she watched the lone ugly that escaped her attack strafed the top of the Shadow. “Fast little fuckers,” Sinya said as her head tracked him twisting around a tall hill. “Lucky they don’t have much of a punch.”
Her attention was brought back to the Flight Controls by a new round of shield alarms. The indicators were flashing their warning that the shields were reaching a dangerous level.
“We can’t win this fight,” Lysire called out. She paused for a reply, then added, “SINYA!”
“I know!” Sinya yelled back. Her mind focused on keeping them alive for just one more moment. Sinya rolled the Shadow once more to avoid incoming fire. Clearly, the new flight Lysire was talking about had engaged the arial nighttime dance. Her mind raced for options as she pulled the controls left, then right.
___
The rising sun was just starting to peak over the mountains to the east. For the moment, darkness was their only ally. The black and deep gray paint made it hard for the enemy pilots to spot them. And the sensor damping paint made it harder for them to track the Shadow. But soon, with the coming light, that was going to be gone.
She frowned as her eyes shifted to the local sensor monitor. There were three hostiles around her that were her immediate threat. And six more speeding in from the west. She set a timer to warn her when the third wave would be upon her. She knew the Shadow couldn’t outrun these lighter fighters. Which meant she had to escape the combat.
After she had dropped the party off, her plan was to hide in the mountains. But little did she realize that a ground base observation post had spotted the Shadow near the farmer’s field. Lysire had picked up the report and Sinya had cursed her bad luck. Since that moment, they had been dealing with spotters while Lysire was tracking the incoming flight of four fighters. They had managed to splash three of the first wave of fighters, but now the numbers just weren’t in their favor anymore.
“Wraith,” Sinya called out, “take over the rear guns.” Once more, Sinya turned the Shadow to avoid incoming fire as the three fighters were swarming the Shadow. She hated the fact that she had to make that call. The order meant that the Droid would have to unhook from his position on the Nav Station and go back to the tail gunner’s position. Luckily, there was a Droid hoist to get the astromech into position. Despite the hoist, it was a bad design. One that she made a mental note to fix.
__
“Lysire, get back to your station. I have a plan and I need you to hack their comms,” Sinya said but was cut off as she heard a new warning siren sound. There wasn’t time to even think as Sinya pulled the heavy Shadow in to a climb then put it in to a barrel roll. Over the sirens, “HANG ON!” She yelled as she pulled the Shadow over on to its back and then back towards the ground.
The droid cried out and Lysire scream as Sinya maneuvered the lumbering Shadow into an inverted loop. She flipped the safety covers that hung over a pair of switches, then Sinya triggered the Shadow’s afterburners.
The Shadow lurched forward as the force of the maneuver pulled Sinya from her chair and painfully against her harness. She pulled the controls once more as the loud groans of metal echoed throughout the ship, “Turn your big ass, bitch,” she groaned at the Shadow. Pulling back the throttle and forcing everyone forward, Sinya completed the insane maneuver. She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched a pair of missiles shoot passed the Shadow’s fuselage. With the nose of the Shadow pulling up from the ground, a pair of uglies came into view.
Hanging upside down, Sinya’s cockpit view was inverted as the Shadow was pulling up from its inverted loop. She smiled, “surprise,” she pulled the trigger. This time her aim was true as her bolts of plasma ripped through the two fighters with brutal accuracy.
She rolled the Shadow once more, “Where is that last fucker,” she said coldly. The local scanners put the fighter wide to her flank. She finally had some breathing room, “Okay, get to your stations,” she ordered. Sinya pulled the Shadow’s nose towards the sky. Sinya knew that she only had a few seconds before her world got hairy again.
__
She pulled out her commlink and typed out a message, “Yo, Bro. Stumbled on some friends. They wanted to hang out with us. Having a hell of a time at the dance hall. Wish you were here! Afterwards, we are going to catch dinner and a movie. Probably pick up some drinks after that. Don’t wait up for us, going to be a long day and night. Might even get lucky! Don’t forget to pick up mom’s medication.” She tagged the message for Lysire and hit the send command. “Hey, I just sent you a message. I need you can mask it and send it to Kaleb,” Sinya explained.
The local scanners reported that lone fighter was making its circle around them. She plotted that he was coming around low and towards their rear. Sinya figured he had become used to Lysire’s ineffective rear fire. “Wraith, you got a bogie coming your way,” Sinya called out. Coming in low meant that they had realized that the Shadow’s tail guns couldn’t fire under and behind the ship. It was a nasty blind spot that was caused by the rear loading ramp.
The droid replied with a series of beeps and squeals. “Don’t be an ass about it,” she yelled back. The Shadow continued to raise in altitude as it raced for space. She smiled, “Get ready Wraith!” Sinya rolled the Shadow back over on to its back and giving the Droid an inverted firing arc. The maneuver put the incoming fighter straight in to the droids firing arc.
Sinya didn’t need to hear Wraith’s victory call as she saw the fighter on their six vanish from the sensors. “Not out of the woods yet,” she said with more than a wishful tone of hope. The timer was counting down on those six fighters. They were mere minutes from intercept and the Shadow was no where near able to fight six more fighters. Taking on six already was asking more than enough of the large craft.
__
“Message sent,” Lysire called over the intercom, “I sent the text to nearly half of the city’s population. Let them go ahead and try to track that.” After a moment, Sinya heard something she never thought she would hear from Lysire’s mouth, “FUCK!”
“What?” Sinya questioned in wonder and surprise.
“We just went from the frying pan, straight into the fire,” Lysire answered.
Sinya was about to yell at her about giving effective call outs till she saw the local sensor’s alert. A large arrow shaped shadow creeped on to the local sensor screen. Some three hundred meters of hurt in the form of a Arquitens-class light cruiser had just crashed their dance party. And as if that couldn’t make things worse, six more fighters were trying to use the larger cruiser as cover to sneak up on the Shadow. The capital ship with its supporting fighters was moving to cut off their escape trajectory. The Shadow’s Identify Friend or Foe system identified the six new fighters as V-19 Torrent starfighters.
“Fuck” Sinya said softly, drawing out the word. “Lysire,” she called down, “give me some good news.”
“I can’t.” Lysire said with no emotions in her voice. “Long range sensors report, four patrol craft heading at high speed to our location. Baklid Military Command and Control is ordering our destruction. I guess the only good news is that the Jedi Cruisers haven’t joined the battle, yet. I have no comm traffic from them.” There was a pause, “wait, those V-19’s, here is something. Those are the export models.”
__
Sinya realized what that meant. No Hyperdrive, no hook up for Hyperdrive rings, they were strictly used for Planetary defense. ‘Well, that was something,’ she thought. She formed a plan in her head. It wasn’t great, but it would ensure that the Shadow just might survive this engagement. “We’ll be back Kaleb, I promise,” she promised more to herself than to anyone else.
Frowning, Sinya called out, “Wraith, back to the Nav Station. Plot us a course out of here.” Her eyes danced over the Shadow’s flight read outs. The ship had taken a pounding and they were instore for much more before they were safe. She reached up and switched the shields to recycle.
“What are you doing,” Lysire called out in surprise.
“We are going on the attack, but we need the shields at a hundred percent,” she said setting a timer as her hands flew over the controls. “Lysire, didn’t they demand that Durro surrender when this nonsense started,” Sinya asked as she continued to recycle the shields. Her entire focus was now on forcing the shields to recycle faster.
“Yeah,” Lysire answered with question in her voice.
“Good,” Sinya grinned, “let’s see how much they fear the terrorist.”
After a few moments, the shield indicator returned to a green status, “Let’s go get us, a Cruiser.”
“Wait….what!” Lysire said in disbelief.
__
The shadow’s engines lit up with power as the craft rocketed towards the Cruiser. The Shadow seemed to dance between the incoming turbolaser fire as the distance counted down. As the range dropped, the accuracy of the cruiser’s fire became better. The Shadow’s shields lit up with a couple of solid hits. But before the ventral gunners could finish the Shadow off, the heavy craft shot through the two front edges of the cruiser. As the dorsal gunners were trying to track the new threat, the Shadow rolled, dropping to the deck of the cruisers hull and below their firing arc.
Caught completely by surprise, the wing of V-19s scattered giving the Shadow a clear path up the hull of the cruiser. Picking up speed, the Shadow rocketed across the dorsal hull of the cruiser.
Slowly nosing up, the Shadow opened fire on the command section of the cruiser with fury. The plasma bolts slammed against the shields of the capital ship. As the Shadow grew closer, the ion cannons from the wingtips joined the attack on the command tower of the cruiser. At near point-blank range, a set of four heavy proton torpedoes launched from the Shadow and slammed into the cruiser’s weakened bridge shields. The explosions engulfed the Shadow as the bridge and command section erupted into flames.
In groups of two, the V-19’s started a search pattern around the crippled cruiser. Their effort was soon joined by six uglies. Then a group of gun boats joined the search. With no sign of the attacking ship, the effort was switched to aiding the crippled cruiser. Within hours, the space above the Capital was a hive of activity as more and more support ships rushed to the aid of the crippled cruiser. Beyond that scene, dozens of fighters continued to search for the missing Shadow.
__
The following is a text message received by @Kaleb Wren shortly before he returns from his recon mission.
"Yo, Bro. Stumbled on some friends. They wanted to hang out with us. Having a hell of a time at the dance hall. Wish you were here! Afterwards, we are going to catch dinner and a movie. Probably pick up some drinks after that. Don’t wait up for us, going to be a long day and night. Might even get lucky! Don’t forget to pick up mom’s medication."
__
Early Morning Dog Fight
Capital City of Austerity,
Delphin, Baklid VI
10.28.0968
News Broadcast:
Good Morning Citizens, you are tuning in to Baklid Broadcasting Company.
We interrupt your morning programming with the latest news regarding the War on Terror.
About an hour before sun rise and nearly thirty kilometers south east of the Capital, a ship known to belong to the terrorist Durro Thel-Tanis was spotted by Loyal Citizens of Baklid. They quickly realized the threat that this ship represented and notified Baklid Security Forces. Acting under orders from the Prime Minister’s office, fighters were dispatched to capture the terrorist. (An image of the Shadow is presented) This modified ARC-170, has posed a serious threat to Baklid’s security for months.
So important is the safety of every family on Baklid, the Prime Minister himself watched the coming battle from his Command Bunker under the Royal Palace.
In a dog fight that was witnessed across the entire region, our brave pilots fought back the terrorists. Some gave the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that your families would remains safe. So reckless, so uncaring of the safety of others, the actions of these terrorists left dozens of civilians fearing for their lives. But our Defense Force was there to help those in need.
__
At one point during the battle, we can assume that the terrorists decided to try to flee justice. Our brave defenders gave pursuit and chased the terrorists into space, where Baklid’s Cruiser, the Balla was waiting to seal the trap on the terrorists. After refusing countless calls to surrender, the terrorists launched a suicide attack on the Balla. While the Balla suffered minor damage from the futile attack, the terrorists ship was destroyed.
While we have no confirmation that the Terrorist leader himself, Durro Thel-Tanis, was on board at the time of the ship’s destruction, we can be assured that some of his fellow terrorists died on that ship. Baklid and the greater galaxy has become a safer place thanks to our brave defenders. But more, to that brave citizen who spotted the terrorist’s ship and made the Report. In an announcement from the Prime Minister’s office, that unnamed citizen is to be awarded for his courage.
We have this from the Prime Minister’s office.
“It is due to the loyalty and courage of our citizens; is why we will be victorious against these terrorists who want to cause your family’s suffering. We must keep up the war against Terror. Each minor sacrifice that our citizens make, brings this nasty war that much closer to its conclusion.”
We will continue to follow these latest developments. You have been watching a BBC Latest News Update. We will return you to your regularly scheduled programming.