A Swarm of Wasps

[Lily Kilia]

Location: En Route to First Order Space​

​

The Split Wing T-90 dropped out of hyperspace, the bright streaks of light falling into place on the all encompassing black canvas that surrounded the two starfighters. "Grey Leader to Trex. You with me Trex?" sounded off Lieutenant Lily Kilia. The small craft drifted calmly in space as she swiveled her head around, getting her bearings and checking for any potential hostile craft.

Orion Trex and Lt. Lily Kilia, sent by the Kathol Outback and the Galactic Alliance, had been sent ahead to provide intelligence on the First Order, the close territorial borders a cause for concern within the two factions. While the Alliance was much larger, and likely capable of going toe to toe with the First Order, the smaller Outback did not have a formal fleet....at least not a significant one. Rumors had it that the crafty Outbackers had stolen some One Sith ships to begin building their fleet. But that was all they were so far, rumors.

"Trex? You with me?" the woman asked again, speaking into her headset.

[member="Orion Trex"]

 

[Zing]

Trex's black Jedi starfighter came out of the white tunnel known as hyperspace, appearing right next to [member="Lily Kilia"]'s ship. The mission was simple. Scoping out the First Order and figuring out how much of a threat they really were. The Galactic Alliance and The Kathol Outback were strong allies, probably the strongest in the galaxy. All the other factions were either at each other's throats, or they had no relations with each other. But the Kathol Outback and the Galactic Alliance were friends, and sending two of their best pilots to investigate First Order space was a good move. The First Order favored the dark side, while the Alliance favored the light. It was inevitable that the two sides were colliding, especially with the First Order quickly expanding.

Orion had missed the first message, but heard the second one loud and clear. "Right beside you!" Orion smirked as he looked over to his partners ship, waiting for the next step.

 

[Lily Kilia]

The black starfighter, almost unseen, the only hint that it was even there the lack of stars where they had previously been, caught Lily's eye as the man dropped out of hyperspace beside her, "Nice of you to join me." the young woman said teasingly, looking out the cockpit towards his ship.

"Alright let's get a move on. I wanna be back home in time for breakfast. I'm not missing out on the bacon this time!" The T-90's thrusters ignited as she pushed the throttle forward, propelling the craft further into the blackness of space. Far in the distance one could barely make out a small asteroid field, a beyond that, light reflecting off what seemed to be the hull of a ship.

"Your sensors picking anything up?" Lily inquired, pressing a few buttons. Her sensors should have picked up the vessel.

[member="Orion Trex"]

 

[Zing]

Orion was flying right beside her, looking straight toward the asteroids in the distance. "There are a few blips on my scanners ahead. They are inside that cluster of asteroids."

They weren't here to start a war, just recon. If those were First Order ships, Orion did not want to engage. Starting a fight with them would be very dangerous. If they escaped, the First Order would preemptively strike the Alliance. They would believe that the Alliance was planning to attack them and attack first. If Orion and [member="Lily Kilia"] were destroyed, then the First Order might figure that they were pirates, but then they would be destroyed! Caution would be the best asset the duo had. "We should be very careful. If those are First Order ships ahead, we do not want to trigger an incident."

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Copy that Jedi, let's circle around the asteroids. We'll run silent and drift in, see if we can get a closer look." The starfighter tilted to the left, beginning to make her way around the asteroids. As she stabilized she looked back out the cockpit at the distant vessels. She realized that they were in fact a lot closer than she had originally thought. Smaller as well. They'd have to get in closer to be sure of what exactly the craft were though.

[member="Orion Trex"]

 

[Zing]

Orion cut off any unnecessary features of the ship, hoping to cut back on any detectable power. If those ships were scanning for incoming ships, he didn't want to be noticed. Orion decided to pull behind [member="Lily Kilia"], flying closely behind. He looked over to the ships that were now almost to the side of them instead of ahead of them. He could tell that the ships were using the asteroids as some sort of cover and protection, he just didn't know what they were trying to protect themselves from. Or, what they were hiding.

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Let's get into the asteroids. Should provide some jamming against their sensors...run silent and we'll be ghosts." Lily said as she banked to the right, flying straight into the ring of the floating space rocks. She shut off all non essential systems, the T-90 drifting on its own, the momentum carrying it through the maze of rock.

The ships approached closer. They were clearly not First Order vessels...they had no markings at all from what she could tell...what were they doing out here?

[member="Orion Trex"]

 

[Zing]

Orion followed closely behind, cutting off all power and drifting into the floating rocks. He looked for any identifying symbols on the vessels, but couldn't see anything. He started counting how many ships there were in total. Six. Orion counted six. They were not very sleek. They all seemed to be pieced together out of old metal pieces, some rusted. They weren't anything uniform, and they obviously weren't high tech.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

The Lieutenant risked being detected to ask a question. "What the kark is all this?" she asked. Before she even finished the sentence, the warning signs within her craft went off. They'd noticed them...and they were getting ready to attack. "Move! Move!"

The grey starfighter's engines roared to life as it rocketed out and turned making its way around the large craft. Swarms exploded out from the large vessels, a hail of lasers coming towards them.

[member="Orion Trex"]

 

[Zing]

Orion turned all the power on as quickly as he could, just in time to maneuver out of the incoming fire's way. Instead of turning, he flew under the large vessels, trying to come out on the other side. He had to spin a few times to narrowly avoid blasts, and at one point he had to launch missiles at one of the turrets in order to stop himself from being hit. Once Orion reached the other side of the fleet of ships, he flipped his ship and tried to fly back the way the two had come. But as he was flying, he could see the incoming fighters coming behind him. Old tie fighters, painted black with red claw marks on each wing. "[member="Lily Kilia"]! We've got incoming fighters!"

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Copy that Jedi! You've got some on your tail!" she shouted into the coms as she dodged and weaved between mass of fighters which careened towards her craft.

She could see [member="Orion Trex"] being tailed by four of the hostile fighters. Hitting the thrusters she sped up to meet them, locking in her S-foils. As soon as she was within range she pulled the trigger, a torrent or red light slamming into a fighter briefly jolting before it was consumed in a brief flare of fire, quickly extinguished in the vacuum of space.

 

[Zing]

Orion heard the explosion behind him, and he knew that [member="Lily Kilia"] had destroyed one of the fighters. As he was avoiding the incoming blasts, he noticed an asteroid filled with holes. He maneuvered his ship through one of the large holes, flying straight through and out the other side. The enemy fighters tried to follow through, three at a time. However, the inexperienced pilots were unable to fit through, leading to all of them exploding. Orion flew back around the asteroid to see more incoming fighters. "Perhaps it would be a good time to go!?" Orion opened fire on the fighters coming his way, unleashing a torrent of red laser fire right back at them.

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily pushed the yoke forward sending the T-90 in a relative up direction in a loop. Upon making the U-turn she once again sped up, weaving between the incoming lazer bolts. A single bolt clipped the wing of the swift fighter, a stream of smoke beginning to pour from it. "Yeah thatd be a good idea!"

[member="Orion Trex"]

 

[Zing]

Orion did another pass through the cloud of fighters, but this time, his ship was hit twice. Once in the wing, and once in the engine. As he flew back around to try and get an opening for a hyperspace jump, he saw a red flashing light on his console, signalling that his hyperdrive was damaged. "They got my hyperdrive! I am going to fly around and try to land on one of their ships!" Orion did a flip, flying above the other fighters, shooting one as he doubled back toward the large vessels, hoping to land on one.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Are you crazy?!" she shouted into her commset as she zigzagged, avoiding the lazer fire from the TIE Fighters tailing her. She flew between two of the six larger ships and hugged the hull of the metal monstrosity, suddenly pulling the yoke towards herself and sending the T-90 into a dive, turning quickly to left once more towards the asteroid fields.

[member="Orion Trex"]

 

[Zing]

Orion started spinning his ship, avoiding all the incoming blaster fire. As he spun, he launched two missiles into the hangar shield controls of the vessel ahead of him, shutting down the shields so he could land. "Go on! Get out of here! I have no hyperdrive!"

He skidded into the hangar, sliding across the floor. As he slid, he tried to open the cockpit, but the controls were damaged. He had to reach out with the force, destroying the glass. He jumped out as quickly as he could, and watched his ship crash into the nearby wall, exploding. He turned to his right, seeing multiple figures approaching him. Orion reached to his belt and sneered, "Trandoshans." He activated his blade pointing it toward them with one hand.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily ignored the Jedi's order. She didn't leave people behind. She charged at the vessel which [member="Orion Trex"] was now aboard and pulled the trigger, the ship's cannnons unleashing hell. She strafed across the top and aimed towards the bridge, pulling up at the last second. Within the bridge systems whined and blared, those within lying on the floor groaning or dead.

"Hurry up Jedi! I thought oyu people were good at this kind of thing!"

 

[Zing]

"Jedi! Kill the Jedi!" The trandoshans began opening fire. Orion started deflecting blasts back at them, taking down a couple before moving to cover. He grabbed his own blaster, deflecting with one hand and shooting back with another. But as they kept fighting, more trandoshans started coming into the hangar, and Orion was quickly realizing how outnumbered he was.

"I would like to get out of here, but it would seem that my ship has exploded!" Orion yelled into his comlink, signalling that he would need to find a new form of transport.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Well then get another!" Lily souted as she maneuvered between the cruisers, using them to avoid the hostile fire coming in from behind her. She pulled a barrel roll, circling around a piece of space debris and pulled a hard right, flying under the belly of the cruiser.

[member="Orion Trex"]

 

[Zing]

Orion rolled his eyes when he heard her tell him to find another ship. But, he did need to find another way off this ship. And whatever ship he stole, it would need a hyperdrive. Orion decided to just try and push out of the hangar. He leaped over the boxes he was hiding behind and rushed the pirates. He deflected a blast into one, shot another, force pushed two more, and finally reached a fifth, decapitating him. He then dashed off down the hall, running to find another hangar that would have a ship he could steal.

[member="Lily Kilia"]