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He coughed. That woke him up. It turned out he was already in his fighter. Must've just... fallen asleep. Huh. Storm shook his head begrudgingly, and set to starting the fighter up.
"Ragnell... 2? Yeah, two. I'm here." he spoke down the headset via his helmet, flicking multiple switches on the dash of the fighter. The machine purred and whirred pleasantly, the flaps on the wings dropping with mechanised clanking. It made him feel secure.Peering from his cockpit, he saw most of the fighters already leaving. Great. He despised being late, but, hey-ho, it happened. Besides, he was ready now, to presumably fly head-on into space and shoot thingymajigs and whatever. Lovely. Though, he was rather excited to be flying at last. His training had been short and sweet, concise and somewhat bitter. He shrugged it off, and looked around the cockpit again. A bit cramped. He'd have to get some interior decorators in there. Maybe put a cushion somewhere, some curtains on the window. Spruce up the place a bit. Overall, it was a bit grim.
As the offensive against the pirate force continued, so did the mining operation. By this point, the droids and mining equipment had entered the second phase of their procedures and had finally began to access the precious resource that was pivotal to the Ragnell Squadron. Now it was only a matter of giving the diligent automatons enough cover to complete their operation; through nothing less than wiping the pirate menace from the face of the stars. First, it was time to allow the rest of Ragnell Squadron to taste some action, so before the Mandalorian addressed his daughter, he spoke over the comm once more. "All second stage pilots, you are cleared for take off. I repeat. All second stage pilots, you are free to take off. Godspeed." he said with the utmost calm, yet with firmness of a military officer. With that said, it was only a matter of moments before another wave of excellent pilots surged forth from the vessel in order to engage the enemy. Now came the time for the Mandalorian to share with his eldest child the main ability he had gleaned from tutelage under a former Emperor's second.
"Hello princess." he said directly into her mind, giving her a nod of acknowledgement. "The technique that I am about to utilize is a combination of two abilities. The first is projective telepathy, which allows me to extend my consciousness over large distances. The second is a spell known as Summon Fear. Together, I will be able to hinder the enemy at range, thereby giving the Squadron an edge. Watch closely now..."
With that said, the Mandalorian drew a breath into his lungs and lulled his eyes to a close. The first step was the easier of the two, as projective telepathy was a task of moderate ease for the mentalist. Thrusting his palms forward in order go guide his concentration, Isley then launched his consciousness like a spear across the vastness of space, seeking out the enemy forces. Once this step was complete, the fun began. Ancient Sith poured from his mouth as his arms moved in an intricate circle. Negative energies pooled forth from his psyche, fueling the spell whilst his cultivated it with the Force. Finally, after condensing and shaping the power...he allowed the waves of fear to reverberate through his expanded, mental link. The effects were noticeable in an instant. Starfighters began to fly erretically, with some colliding into asteroids. Others began to fire upon their own allies. Now they were but lambs to the slaughter.
Zahuro held his controls in a near white-knuckle grip in anticipation waiting for the launch command that would clear him to fly straight into this mess of pirates and start shooting. He had heard over the comms how the fighters were cloaked. He didn't care. That would only made it more challenging for his computer to get a target lock. As he waited, his impatience grew, and he nearly decided to buck the formality of waiting for the command and just launch regardless. Before he could take that action though, Isley's voice came through on his commlink. He was cleared to launch. "Finally!" Zahuro exhaled as he relaxed just the slightest bit and activated his thrusters. "Ragnell 4 launching!"
Sinking back into his seat due to the initial G-forces, an excited grin again found its way onto Zahuro's lips. Now it was time to fight. He immediately zeroed in on one pirate fighter that had flown by an asteroid, letting Zahuro see the distorted flicker pattern of his ship's cloak against the asteroid's brown surface. Jackpot. Swooping down low to stay out of sight range Zahuro broke upward in a steep climb once he was below the pirate's position. Keeping track of the telltale flicker, Zahuro sighted in his laser cannons and fired. His shots definitely surprised the pirate, who immediately banked right and descended as smoke trailed from behind his fighter. Zahuro settled in behind him to keep chase as his computer progressed with regaining the target lock. The pirate, now aware he was being targeted, began slaloming to prevent himself from being shot at. Zahuro still kept with him, countering his hard slaloms with light turns to keep the computer's view centered. That was a better tactic than following the pirate's bobbing and weaving, which would throw off the computer's view and make locking the target more difficult. Again the computer achieved lock-on status, and again Zahuro fired his lasers. This time his shots caught the fighter in the exhaust ports, causing its engine to overheat and explode in a chain reaction.
Zahuro smirked in smug self satisfaction. He was only getting started and already had racked up a kill. One, he tallied. A telltale beep from his computer informed him that he was now being targeted from a high one o'clock position. "So, wants to avenge his friend does he? Let's see if this schutta can keep up!" he muttered out loud before rolling right to avoid laser bolts headed for his cockpit visor. But then, something strange happened. The enemy broke its target lock and negated to pursue. Zahuro looked at his computer out of confusion, wondering if it was malfunctioning. It still relayed the lack of an enemy target lock. That couldn't be right, but then Zahuro looked up at the fighter that had fired upon him. It had abandoned pursuit of him to instead decloak and fire upon a fellow pirate vessel. "What the hell is going on?!" He exclaimed out of sheer disbelief.
Somewhere in the distance, she still heard the voices coming through the comm but they seemed so many light years away right now, all her concentration poured into this single act of maintaining a connection open with Isley. It was an annoying fact, going from scratch. But still, she was ever the scholar, ever learning. It was in her nature no matter how much she didn't want to admit it. There was always more useful skills to learn, more Powers that will help her do set forth her plans.
And when [member="Isley Verd"] spoke back in her head, in a pet name she knew to often be reserved for daughters. In fact, she knew of one particular instance when it was actually used. But she didn't think of names or faces now, merely pushing that thought away as she listened to her father explain how the technique he was to utilize was a combination of two abilities. Projective telepathy allowed his to extend his consciousness over large distances. This power she would very much enjoy having. The second one was a Sith spell. Summon Fear. She'd heard of some Sith Spells before but never saw them useful. Entertaining perhaps, but not useful.
But in this case, it was somewhat useful because Isley planned on hindering the enemy in rage with it to give their pilots an edge. Continuing to keep the link between them open, Anastasia pushed herself a little further ad let her Force Sense help her out some. She felt the Force at work as he began, the impact of it extremely powerful on her weak abilities. It was intense, her own essence hit by the wave of power he was emitting. Probably a good thing is was sending it in the opposite direction. But even through the intense blast, she could feel bits of what he was doing, pushing his consciousness ahead of him. This must have been the projective telepathy, Anastasia told herself and continued to concentrate though she couldn't reach so far ahead right now to actually feel the effect of the power on the enemy it was aimed at.
For the next step, she heard the occasional words of the ancient language, words she could partly understand due to her basic knowledge of Ancient sith. But this told her plenty in this particular situation, Isley was chanting, calling for the Summon Fear spell just as he had told her. The sudden wave of darkness washed over her like a tidal wave, reaching the very center of her essence. The taste of the dark side was always powerful. Once, it was a power she was not permitted to feel and then it had become a way of life. But the power now piercing through her every skin reminded her of power she respected so much. Her two Masters of the past, only two of all the mentors she ever had made her feel such power. Anastasia knew this man to be a Master in the Force but she had never felt the full extent for it. Isley Verd had achieved something greater than the loyalty she had for him at this point, her respect.
It had all happened in and instant, the next moment, the wave of it pushed her out of her connection completely, her entire body losing balance and making her stumble for a step, making her move her feet to regain it. Then finally she exhaled, the echoes of such strong power leaving traces on her essence. "Teach me, father," Anastasia suddenly whispered, forgetting herself to be the teenage girl but letting her true nature slip for a moment. Then she collected her and inhaled deep, calming herself. It was a form of meditation, her mouth releasing and taking in small bits of air as she centered herself. Once she had felt herself centered and ready, she moved ahead to stand beside her father, her dark gaze focused on the window ahead, wanting to see the effects of what he had just done. It came quick, the force voice coming through the comm link. The pilots seemed confused.
Esther sighed in relief as the order for the second wave to launch came in over the comm, clearing her to launch. Almost immediately after her wingman [member="Zahuro Ikane"] launched, Esther herself called out over the comm as well.
"Ragnell Leader, launching!"
In the split second between Esther announcing her launch and the short burst of comm static that followed, Esther's Jackal tore out of the Hangar, trailing after her wingmate just long enough to see one of the pirates' cloaked starfighters on his tail, only to peel away and decloak, suddenly firing on its allies. The sight was bewildering, to be sure, but what was even stranger to Esther was that this pirate didn't seem to be the only one acting strangely; All across the open space that served as the battlefield against these pirates, she noticed several enemy ship signatures on her instruments suddenly spiraling out, in some cases losing control enough to collide with asteroids. And with this pressure that she had been feeling since she launched... Was it the cause of this bizarre behavior? If so, perhaps several other pirates were also suddenly opening fire on each other?
Either way, it seemed prudent for them to take advantage of the situation. Esther caught up with her wingman, pulling up along his starfighter a few dozen meters off to the left, before hailing him over the comm; She thought she had seen that pirate starfighter take shots at him before it peeled off the way it did, and she wanted to make sure Zahuro was okay.
"Ikane," Esther called out over the comm, calmly but clearly worried. She kept her eyes out as she spoke as well, in case any of the pirate starfighters who hadn't been affected by that pressure tried anything. "I saw tThat pirate get some shots off before it pulled away- None of them hit you, did they?"
Zahuro stared in shock at the pirate fighters as they fought and destroyed one another. Pirate crews of the same vessel were usually a tightly knit bunch, so infighting wasn't a common occurrence. Yet here they were slaughtering each other for no reason, and Zahuro's feelings about it were mixed. On the one hand, it meant less pirates in the galaxy. On the other this infighting meant they weren't trying to fight him. This left Zahuro very disappointed and feeling like he had launched his ship for nothing.
A transmission on his comm link snapped Zahuro out of his brooding, and he looked to the left of his fighter to see the Ragnell Leader's Jackal fighter. She was asking for a status update wondering if his craft was damaged. Zahuro blinked for a second before remembering that one fighter had taken a shot at him before breaking away. "Negative Esther," Zahuro answered, "I was fired upon but managed to evade." Glancing back up at the starfighters still duking it out he spoke again, "So what's the plan now?"
Thank goodness, he hadn't been hit. Esther slumped back in her seat, her worries put to rest of now thanks to [member="Zahuro Ikane"]'s status report. As the question of what to do next came, Esther took a moment to look around to consider what their options were. On one hand, they could just leave and let the pirates destroy themselves, but Esther had a feeling that this pressure she was feeling, the likely cause of the behavior that the pirates were now displaying, was coming from their own ship; Whether it was some sort of weapon or a powerful Force user, she couldn't tell with the lack of training she had in the Force, but whatever it was would likely stop affecting the pirates if they left.
The next best option, she surmised, would be to capture as many of the pirates as possible, preferably starting with the ones being affected by the pressure. It wouldn't mean much if they disabled a Pirate fighter just for one of the affected Pirates to blow it up immediately afterwards. They had the ion cannons to do the job, too, at least against the Pirate starfighters they were dealing with. "...Switch to Ion cannons. First thing we're going to do is disable as many of their starfighters as possible; We can tow them back afterwards so their pilots can stand trial for piracy. We can start with the pirate that had been taking shots at you, and the one it's chasing- I'd prefer to down the former first, if possible. Understood?"
When Zahuro heard the order to switch to ion cannons he unconsciously looked in the direction of Esther's ship out of confusion. She probably couldn't see his face, but he did it anyway. "You do realize what kind of ship I'm in right?" Zahuro questioned, "I'm in an A-Wing, these don't have Ion Cannons. Best I could do is to turn down the power level on the lasers to something akin to a stun setting. And good luck trying to find the ship that fired at me. If it hasn't already been destroyed it's likely still in the thick of the fight. All I could tell you was it looked like an Ugly with an X-wing cockpit welded to old Tie panel wings. Call it an X-Tie."
After his brief explanation of the enemy ship she wanted to find, Zahuro took advantage of the lull in fighting by grabbing his flask from his vest and drinking a quick shot of booze. Exhaling at the brief burning sensation he started to adjust the power draw on his laser cannons until they approached something like stun configuration. They were still lethal if they hit a critical system like the engines, but a shot to a stabilizer or wing should momentarily freeze up the ship's computer systems. Replacing his flask in his vest he spoke through his comm link again, "Ready to fly," he stated simply.
