Angel

[Relina Zhan]

Location: Lorrell System, Lorelli Reach, Hapes Cluster
Time: 1743 hours, 06/10/ C.Y. 4899

Angel (Guiesppe Ottiavani Feat. Faith)


"Just keep him stable, R9. Nothing too fancy." Ducha Relina Zhan, Major of the Hapan Royal Navy, advised her astromech driod, R9-Z5. Hapans, such as Relina, had a tendency to refer to ships in the masculine, which set them apart from others in the Galaxy.

"Present Course: bearing two-eight-zero degrees. Present speed: two-thousand ninety-five knots." R9's binary language would be translated into a feminine voice nearly indistinguishable from a Human's in a cool, calm tone.

"I have to wonder why Command sent us out on a milk-run such as this...." she commented offhandedly.

"I like to think of it as a P.T. run, My Lady. Of course, Lorrell's local militia should be able to handle a pirate raid...." Commented Angel 5, Major Cynthya Nori.

"Fair enough, Aurora. Let us spread our wings, no?" Ducha Zhan replied.

The Angel squadron maintained their course toward the planet's moon relying on passive stealth to get in close. It would be hoped that it would do its job against active sensor scanning. To cripple the enemy, their TypeM 808 Terminus Starfighters, relatively new and ready to assume their place as the Miy'til's successors, had to be unseen.

Their carrier, the Olympian, a Nova-Class cruiser of a recent generation, would act as their AWACS and support centre... as well as additional firepower. The ship carried the Space Marines and Cyborg Warriors necessary to take the pirate ships over, or so was the plan. The Angels were assigned to help swat down resisting fighters.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Mandalorian warriors scattered around in the small hangar. There were teams to hit the ship in question directly, some fighter escorts would flow around to give those that might oppose the might of Mandalore a fight. After all, this raid was important otherwise Drahr’buir would not be seeing to it personally. I looked over my dear once more, and clicked my helmet into place, watching as Drahr’buir and Aten walked the length of the hangar chatting amongst themselves, quietly.

As they walked past my ship they stopped, “You, Mereck. I’ll be riding with you as your tail gunner.” He said, before turning back and discussing the raid with Aten further. That was an interesting change but, nonetheless it will work out. "Alright Drahr'buir." I responded, a tad nervously as he stopped and looked me over.

“I can’t fly worth a can of sith spit, but I can shoot alright. Once we meld everything will be fine,” He said slapping me on the back. Time to go I guess. The clock started ticking away as pilots climbed into their craft and prepared to launch at the cargo ship. There must be a crate of Rainbow gems to facilitate this scale of an operation, but it was after all just a snatch and grab.

As the lights on HUD’s flashed green twelve Bes’uliik Starfighters flashed out of the hangar followed by a pair of boarding shuttles. “Don’t worry kid. Just open up and join up. Trust in yourself a bit and open up to the force.” I could hear his voice over the comms and feel his dark presence as he melded with me, it was a lot darker than I had expected given his outward mood. Outside there was another presence, separate but aware on one of the boarding shuttles. The plan was simple, race over to the heavy freighter about to revert, hit them stupid hard and take all their stuff.

[member="Relina Zhan"]

 

[Relina Zhan]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

The Angels cut their engines as they came around the far side of Lorrell's moon. An officer aboard the Olympian spoke over the comm line.

"This is AWACS Olympian. Angel Squadron, we have incoming. Sensor signals indicate targets of unknown origin bearing two-eight-five degrees from your position. They do not appear to be known pirate gangs. All weapons are authorised."

"This is Edge. Rodger, AWACS. Angel Squadron will prosecute. All craft, weapons hot. Set S-foils to attack position" Relina replied. She'd flip a switch on her console and set her comm to transmit the signal she was about to broadcast. "ECCM, requesting relay. Tactical music engaged."

The comm lines, apart from friendly channels would soon be awash with digital noise laid under local music of the EDM genre. They wouldn't speak unless everyone else could hear. The Angels would then turn to their engagement vector, weapons activated and ready. Foriegn pirates? How, she wondered, did they manage to get past the Transitory Mists in the first place? Either they were lucky or they had been snooping around somehow. No matter. Pirates, interlopers... they have all been, historically, treated the same.

The shape of the Terminus fighters were of a sleek beveled and angular design meant to reflect sensor signals away from their source. Their engine efflux was neutralised to help baffle ion-trail seeking ordinance. The infrared, perhaps, was the only thing that could give them away at far visual range, but by that time....

"Missile lock, on." R9 advised her mistress. Relina had tone.

"I've got tone. LRAM Concussion Missiles are locked on target. Awaiting orders." She said.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Look alive....” I could feel them in the Force too, distant and approaching. Lock threat warnings flared on my wing-mates ship.

Oh crap. They had fighter support in system already. Either a stroke of luck of perhaps the information we had was part of a trap. “Calm down bud. Focus and fly us around.” The voice of the clan’s leader calmed me. He had the tail gun and that would help out.

The comms buzzed “On approach vector.” The freighter that the boys were here to hijack popped into system right where it was supposed to. I could feel the presence of Drahr’buir reassuring me, and more importantly expanding out behind us towards the enemy. The dark, fearsome presence of the Dark Jedi Master reaching for the minds of the enemy pilots.

I rolled the ship over, putting my wing-mate off to my left. “Burn hot and fast, four.” Drifting back behind him, trying to break the threat lock. Apparently there were a few others claiming locks. We hadn’t been expecting such a rapid response, but keep clear.

“This is Akaan’drahr’alor. Hold them off long enough for me to get aboard.” Orders were clear. Create space and give the supercommandos time to raid the random freighter.

[member="Relina Zhan"]

 

[Relina Zhan]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

"Angel Squadron, you are clear to fire at will. Engage." The Olympian ordered.

Relina grinned slightly as she turned tightly to keep the ships in her sights. She would lock her gaze onto what she believed to be the leading ship in the formation and chose him as her target. The canopy system of the Terminus was quite sophisticated, reacting to what the pilot was looking at as well as sensor stimuli. In fact, certain sensor systems were tied to line of sight sensors. From the outside, the canopy was opaque, studded with recessed holocams to provide a wider and clearer view of the surrounding area, providing superior situational awareness compared to more traditional cockpit set ups. Obviously, however, it was more expensive and required training to utilise. Relina saw everything through the projection inside of her canopy, tactical data streaming unobtrusively using an augmented reality subroutine tied into the ship's central operating system. Her target was marked by a red square with a blinking "X" in the middle, the missile lock tone singing it's monotone song.

"Angels, we are red and free." she said. She would then pull the trigger to launch her long-range missile from the rotating launcher hidden within the Terminus's underbelly. The revolver-like cylinder briefly dropped down to reveal the LRAM before releasing it. "Angel One. Fox Three!"

"Angel Three, Fox Three!"

"Angel Five, Fox Three!"

"Angel Seven, Fox Three!"

The seven pilots of the 7th Division, 77th Tactical Fighter Wing launched a salvo of concussion missiles at the ships, Relina's heading for the presumed lead followed by that of Angel Four, Lieutenant Taritha "Archer" Schiff, which herself kept behind her leader.

"They are going to break up in evasive action. Don't fight by yourselves. All wings, detach and control their flight. We will box them in. Archer, cover my ass." She predicted.

The squadron all replied, "Yes, My Lady!" as they each separated from the formation, each setting out to cover the directions the enemy ships might break toward to evade while still keeping enough of a distance to be able to close up again in the event of a counterattack. Classic full-squadron flanking manoeuvre, Hapan style.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I could feel them coming, danger sense buzzing away in my mind. Maybe that was why Force Sensitive Pilots were more capable than non Force Users, at least so the rumors lead people to believe. I could feel the dark presence of the Drahr'buir reaching out to them, laced with fear. He was seeking them out and pushing fear into their minds, hoping to make even one of them second guess themselves, fear their opposition, or something.

I pressed on the Force Meld with the other pilots, <Countermeasures.>

The first salvo of missiles detonated, not many making through the defenses of the Bes'uliik squadron, but a pair of the beskar fighters took heavy hits from the explosions. "Seven and two are out. Squad, pair off and go, scatter, draw them with you."

"As ordered lead." I could hear the sound of the rear gun firing at the enemy. "Three, figure eights." Double clicks to confirm.

Off towards the freighter the two shuttles approached the fleeing ship preparing to board it and grab what they were after.

[member="Relina Zhan"]

 

[Relina Zhan]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

"Splash two. Two kills confirmed."

Relina banked right as return fire came at her from a rear cannon. "One to Command, our stealth is compromised. Taking fire. Angels, fall back and let them come to you. Angel Two, Angel five, cinch them.... show us how it's done." she said. Angel Four would stay trailing and followed her flight lead in a cover position. "Don't get strung out chasing them. We only need to prevent them from going anywhere... get them to attack." she added. She would make a hard bank to evade incoming fire, a single shot glancing off the shielding on her port wing. She could feel the impact, briefly turning to look at the wingtip, then to a reading on her shield integrity.

"Forward port deflector screen holding..... Missile lock, on." R9 said, her tactical commentary highlighting the data streaming on the right side of Relina's field of view.

Major Zhan switched to her more plentiful SRAMs, short-range attack-missiles, of which she had six. "You did NOT just shoot that swax'if at me! Switching to Sidewinders...." The same ship that fired back on her was locked onto brightly, the tone steady and clear, just as she turned to port again in another high-G turn. "Angel One, Sweet lock! Good tone. Fox two!" Again, the cylinder that housed her array of deadly ordinance dropped down, rotating a concussion missile into place clear of the fuselage. The missile burst forth and began its suicidal journey while Relina immediately unleashed a volley of shots from her twin ion cannons. While their rate of fire was slightly slower than the dual-linked laser cannons standard on this model, they still held shield and electronics busting capabilities... and Hapans were notorious for borderline excessive use of high-end ion weaponry.

Angel Four carried more long range missiles and only a couple short range ones. Tartiha Schiff wasn't called "Archer" for nothing. She had a lock as well, not really needing her own astromech to make that known. "Angel Four, Fox Three." She said calmly as she let loose her ordinance on the ship Angel One was firing upon. There was a momentary delay in her reaction, however. She wanted the ion spray from Ducha Zhan to have a chance to hit first.

"Yes, My lady." Replied Angel Two, Holland "Lance" Roc. Soon, he would be demonstrating exactly where he got his callsign. "Lance will prosecute." He would shoot his laser cannons at them on occasion, sidelining one of the pirate ships, then falling back as if to taunt them. "Come on, sha'sune. I'm the one you want!" He said aloud, in the event that the use of tactical music pushed them to broadcast on the same channels. He had a commoner's Hapan accent when he spoke Basic, in particular, an Interior one. it was a subtle contrast to Relina's accent, which was more.. posh, perhaps?

"Yes My lady!" Angel Five replied. She would tightly turn in an attempt to corral Roc's target and put him on the run. The angle at which she was to fly and sideline him was intended to get the pirate to fly straight toward Angel Two to close the pincer. She'd also fire every so often as she manoeuvred into position just to discourage deviation from the course she wanted him in. Of course, if they took a risk and flew in any other direction, both Angels could open fire in concert on him, she considered. he was right where she wanted him in either case. She just needed to get behind him and mind the rear cannons. "it's Puragtory all over again..." she said with a chuckle.

Angel Three, Rafe "Screech" Misra, took interest in one of the others that seemed to be attempting to fly in a tight figure -eight formation. He couldn't exactly stop this one from getting into that position with Angel Seven, Kael "Volcano" Lythos in a cover position on his tail. "Yes My Lady." both men replied. They both fell back, but took a wide course around the shuttles, hoping to string out enemy. They were both prepared for that eventuality. The shuttles were almost in range of their LRAMs. Angel Six, Anna "Blackout" DuCroix, took a flanking position with Angels Three and Seven to support them.

The Olympian was closing in, his point-defense batteries and ion cannons taking aim at the Pirate ships to attempt cutting off their advance, but he did not yet fire. They were still just a hair too far out for a clean shot. The Nova-Class cruiser was certainly imposing compared to the pirate's choice of ship, but bigger ships obeyed different rules against smaller ones. Size mattered.