Fight and Flight (Fleet Raid treasure hunt)

[Ortava Zakaz]

((Feel free to join the pirate crew or play fleet oposition.
Rewards for pirates: Ships, money, and maybe some rare loot.
Rewards for defenders: Ample pay and maybe rare rewards.))

The Injustice privateer frigate sat idle in deep space along the Mara corridor and activated it's dual gravity well projectors. The beautiful thing about the tactic was that it worked, the ugly part was that you never really know what you might rip out of hyperspace.

Zakaz sat on in his chair on the bridge while his crew of various less savoury beings engaged in various activities that you may expect criminals to engage in. The big man himself sat silently seething while one of "the ladies" sat on his knee and snorted spice of his chest. The sensor station blared a warning and he stood spilling the spice and the woman onto the floor.

"Get the Karkers to their ships." He said his voice like rocks in a tumble dryer, "Get the damn turbolasers ready to fire."

The crew hopped into action as they knew what happened to people who didn't pull their weight. He picked up his vibro axe from the side of his chair and stalked back and forth like a caged Nexu. He wanted action, the kind only boarding a rich kark's ship and robbing him blind could satisfy.

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Ortava Zakaz"]

An old Silk Holdings Peregrine-class freighter hit realspace like a dinko on a windshield. In the cramped bridge, Rel Connory glanced at the mercs he'd hired as crew and wondered which of them had sold him out. In the meantime...

"Shields up. Helm, ninety degrees to port, full power to engines. Get us out of the grav well. Ops-" He glanced at the small-craft ready board. A Peregrine could carry plenty of those, assuming it didn't have too much cargo. For this run, half the hold was merchandise and half was fighter escort.

"-tell the fighters on five-minute standby that they're launching in four. Comms, give me the pirates."

A light clicked to green.

"Unknown vessel, this is the independent armed freighter SS Cormorant. Drop your interdiction field immediately."

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

The bridge was small and cramped, on a Tu5k, but the crew didn't mind it, and hell, neither did he. The Lords of Chaos had been taking a little bit of a nap it seemed and with war raging across the Galaxy trade routes like the Mara were ripe for the plundering. Was it far away from the main fleet? Sure, but Nic had the universe on his side and his instincts as his guide. With those two at his disposal he had nothing to fear. His laugh ripped through the bridge as the small after-raid party raged.

And then his ship was ripped from hyperspace.

Normally interdiction wouldn't be a problem. Most of the big ships tended to stay out of completely open space like this, but someone had left the HIMS of their hyperdive inactive. He'd been double crossed. Booze soaked his bantha leather coat and dripped from his hair as he stood up and growled. His eyes pierced the hearts and minds of everyone in the room. Was it the dancers? No, stupid, but not stupid enough to double cross Nic. One of the Ravagers from the Lords? He did have a few irregulars on his ship today. It had to be one of them. It didn't really matter who it was at this point, Nic just wanted to shoot something and someone was begining to become extra terrified. He could taste the fear in the air.

His blaster found its way into his hand and a blaster bolt flew across the deck and into the head of some poor bastard. He shook his head knowingly, the smell of ozone filled the room.

"Well?" he shouted, "What are you waiting for? Battle stations!"

The ship was just on the edge of the privateer-class frigate. Nic slumped back into his chair in a terrible mood.

@Connory @Ortava Zakaz

 

[Ortava Zakaz]

[member="Connory"]

Zakaz watched the ship drop from orbit and his flash training kicked in, though he didn't comprehend it that way. The big man's eyes flashed and his nostrils flared as the comm blared over the bridge speaker. The crew all gave eachother side-long glances and then burst into laughter.

"Shut your filthy holes and patch me through." He bellowed over the noise. "SS Cormorant...No."

He closed the transmission himself and gave the signal to scramble the fighters and gunships.

"Cripple that schutta." He said into the ship intercom "We can't sell scrap. Hard to starboard 45 degrees. Ion cannons full salvo. Get us in tractor range. I. Want. That. Ship."

He stomped over to the tactical display where a one of the dumber higher members of the crew sat painting their face for no good reason. He pushed the being to the side and began doing the firing solutions himself. It would be better that way.

 

[Ortava Zakaz]

(504 gateway double post sorry)

 

[Asheda Tyr]

Pirates and low lives, nothing new there, the only difference was the amount of people she had to associate with on a daily basis, her old pirate and outlaw crew was okay, but things where slow going and their rule about, 'not breaking any law' was a buzz kill. Honi wanted something exciting, something with pazaz, well said something was winding up on [member="Skirata"], the man was rude crude and a sticker for no rules, something that was new and exciting the to spy for hire.

Today though it seemed luck was not on the captains or ships side as the craft was suddenly pulled out of hyper space, the sudden jolt almost making Vettu fall off her dancing pole, "Well this is a problem, what silly little devil had decided to fight us hmmm, oh well, guess its time to get my hands dirty... I wonder who I will be killing today"? Though usually nice the rather attractive Chiss had a sinister side to her when pissed off, a sort of creepy serial killer aura, spurred on by the fact she almost always wore a smile.

[member="Ortava Zakaz"] l [member="Connory"]

 

[Jovian Coopre]

(I'm stepping out, I was never here)

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Jovian Coopre"] [member="Vettu'honi'oazi"] [member="Ortava Zakaz"] [member="Skirata"]

Connory put on his helmet. It seemed the thing to do.

"They're matching speed, Captain," said the scarfaced sensor operator. She brushed red hair out of her eyes and squinted at the readouts. "What kind of engines they got in that thing?"

"That's a Tenloss Privateer," Connory said. "The gold standard. Often imitated, never duplicated. It's this ship minus some cargo space, with interdiction thrown in." Ion fire started hammering the Cormorant's shields. By this point, the pirate was coming up on the starboard side. The grav well had also snagged what looked like a Mandalorian Tu5k assault corvette, plus another ship Connory didn't recognize offhand. Neither had opened fire.

"Shoot back," he said flatly, standing and moving to the starboard viewport. "We outgun a stock Privateer by a bit. Fighters ready?"

"They're launching now, sir."

Six old Silk fighters and a combat shuttle came into view. They accelerated toward the pirate ship, preceded by a light rain of proton torpedos and disabling mag-pulse warheads.

 

[Mia Monroe]

Stars streaked past the cockpit of her A-wing, the last hyperspace jump along the corridor before her contract was up. The escort run to the core had been smooth enough, couple of no gooders tried their hand against the little collection of mercenaries the owner of the Lucky Star had managed to cobble together, but were easily driven off. The ride back had been even quieter, not much of value on board after all and the fighter group was getting restless.

There was something about this group that didn't sit well with Angel, they let their mouths run away with them too much, had a glint in their eyes that would have made her old mans lip curl. The kind of merc that would stick a knife in a comrades back for the right price. The sooner they reached their destination, the better. He mind turned to her paycheck and a slight smile. Another step closer to buying a corvette and a little more freedom.

Her stomach twisted and she sat up a little straighter as the familiar wave of trouble washed over her. The A-wing lurched, the stars coming into sharp focus around them. Angel slid her hearing aids into place and was met with a scream of chatter over the comms and blaring alarms. She winced. "All wings report in!" came their squad leaders bark. the comms quieted for a moment, as the shock wore off and the group settled into their rightful place. Angel scanned the scene before them, sensors identifying on of the three ships as having an interdiction field, and hammering another with Ion blasts. The third ship seemed to be pulling itself together, just been hauled in too by the looks of things.

"Escort 5, standing by." She said as her call came around. The captain of the Lucky Star sounded frantic as his voice crackled over the comms. "Fething pirates. We need to take the inderdictor out!"

"Copy that actual. Escort five, split. Seven, nine and three go with her, we'll cover the Star's retreat."

Four out of twelve...gods she hated this squad leader. "Acknowledged." came her reply as she peeled away from the main group, the others falling into formation behind her. "Should we comm them?" came seven's voice, Angel gave a snort in response. "Waste of breath. Let the Captain worry about negotiating and ready concussion missiles. Target the gravity wells."

[member="Skirata"] [member="Connory"] [member="Ortava Zakaz"] [member="Vettu'honi'oazi"]

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

It was damn near a party over here. He cursed under his breath as the Ion cannons began firing at the freighter. Without another Tu5k this fight was a little hot for his liking, but he wasn't going anywhere. Engineers had come back and told him whatever the traitor had done to the HIMS in their hyperdrive, it wouldn't be fixed for quite some time. Like it or not he was stuck here and he needed to figure out who was who fast.

His eyes glanced over at the tactical display on his captain's chair. To their starboard the interdictor and a freighter were brawling, port the Lucky Stars and their fighter compliment and another ship. He crossed his arms and pondered. Where would he have the biggest advantage. Four gunships if hey fought smart would have no trouble with a couple of starfighters. On the other hand, if he could take out that Privateer he'd be free to make his way home with the small fortune filling their cargo bay.

"Prep the Gunships, we're going after the same freighter that Privateer is, and if we have to we take both of 'em."

"Excuse me cap'n?" Silence fell on the bridge.

"You heard me! Get moving!" And suddenly they were a bustle of drunken activity. Orders were shouted down coms, ships were prepped for launch and their engines flared as they turned to face the SS Cormorant.

@Angel @Connory @Vettu'honi'oazi @Ortava Zakaz

 

[Ortava Zakaz]

Blossoms of turbolaser blast rocked his ship amd he knew damned well he was out gunned by about 20 guns and that was just the ones he was seeing fire. His shields dropped to 5% and then 10% in a much shorter amount of time than he would have liked. It meant he had to either run or think of something.

His fighters began launching in a surprisingly reserved manner. 12 only of 36 total, the fighters were rag tag old and just what you would expect from a band of pirates, but the pilots were mostly displaced military and bush pilots gone bad so they knew their ships. Zakaz, watched as they neared the other ship and counted a small fighter compliment launching. He had guessed a ship that size would have carrried much more, unless they filled their hanger with gear.

He gave the signal for 2 gunships to launch and began to try his hand at out maneuvering the bigger ship. This freighter was twice as long and more than 4 times as tall and wide. He was going to bet on having a better fire arc if he did something different.

"90 degree port rotaion." He said his thoughts oddly calm as the other ships dropped into the system, "30 degrees port yaw, get us beneath him."

He watched as the other ships began moving to engage.

"FETH, LAUNCH REMAINING FIGHTERS AND GUNSHIPS. PREPARE BOARDING PODS." He yelled to the flight second mate, "get quad lasers focused on those fighters, Ion and Turbo lasers on the Cormorant, hit them with everything."

[member="Vettu'honi'oazi"] [member="Connory"] [member="Angel"] [member="Skirata"]​

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

@Angel @Skirata @Ortava Zakaz [member="Vettu'honi'oazi"]

Connory stalked away from the starboard viewport and resumed his seat. A small display fed from a camera on the freighter's flat keel. The sensor screens were lighting up. The Mando corvette was coming their way, another freighter and its fighter escorts had showed up, and some of those escorts had set a course for either the Cormorant or the pirate ship. A dozen pirate fighters and a couple of gunships were tangling with Connory's attack flight, who were outnumbered two to one. But none of that mattered at the moment. All that mattered was the Tenloss Privateer sliding underneath the Cormorant, and the small craft boiling from its two hangar apertures.

"Shields down to ninety-"

"Focus all ventral fire on the Privateer's starboard bay, just forward of the engines." The frigate's quarter roll had aimed that bay right at the Cormorant's underbelly. Now the Cormorant's assorted defense weapons returned the favor. Flak cannons, antimissile octets, quad lasers, and point-defense autoturrets filled the hangar's exit vector (and, ideally, the hangar) with concentrated area denial. Even a couple of fastmount turbolasers had firing vectors to fit. Punch through, and anything could happen - especially that close to the oversized engines.

In the meantime, though, the Privateer's hull kept its port hangar sheltered. A good half of the pirate small craft could launch and prep without serious risk.

"Winter One and Winter Two are good to launch."

"Get them out there. Priority target's the squadron screwing with our fighters."

Two nasty old attack ships with impervium hulls and hawkbat wings accelerated for the dogfight. With so much in the cargo bay, 'launch everything now' wasn't an option - but the Cormorant's hangars had plenty more where these came from, assuming the fight could drag out.

 

[Equinox]

Equinox had just received word of this attack. He decided to help, he wasn't going to see pirates take everything, to he helped.

He rushed at hyperspace, the Light Sky at Class 1. Immediately he saw the pirates attack fleet, time to get those cannons to work, he flew between them gracefully, shooting down two of the fleet before backing up to see the real enemy. It was large, very.

Time to get to work!

 

[Asheda Tyr]

Vettu looked out the window at the following ship combat, for now no one was targeting them, which was good, in a sense they where the king makers, their decision would chose who won and who lost, either way if they got out of the fight alive and with some goodies to go she didn't care who they fought against.

Her attention turned to [member="Ortava Zakaz"] as he shouted out orders, looks as if the pirates would be teaming up on the lone freighter, for now, and if the gun ship where being used, that would mean boarding actions. "Well, I wouldn't say I am dressed for the occasion", Black leather bikini's did not tend to be very protective, "but I've been itching for some action, unless you would rather have me stay by your side cap".

[member="Connory"] l [member="Ortava Zakaz"] l [member="Angel"]

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

The fight looked like it was getting nasty. He had seconds before both the Privateer and the freighter were in range of their weapons. He had a good feeling there was some loot in that freighter worth all the gems and credits aboard his own ship. He was a betting man, its how he lost his mother's saber, but now that it was back in his possession and the poor sod who'd won it fair and square was dead he felt like he could win any gamble in the galaxy, or at least fudge the numbers enough in his favor.

"Point every Ion Cannon we've got on that freighter. I want it afloat. Prep the gunships and get those Turbolasers firing on the Privateer. Those things can get nasty if you leave them along too long. Corner the right captain in one of those and he'll gut you like a cornered nexu..."

And so it was so. Blue and green bolts of energy flew towards their targets.

[member="Vettu'honi'oazi"] @Connory @Ortava Zakaz

 

[Mia Monroe]

What could have been a straight attack run with them having the element of surprise, became complete chaos. The mandalorian tu5k had made its move, aligning to attack both the privateer and the peregrine the space ahead of them filling with the blue and red of ion blasts and laser canons. Instinct made Angel push her A-wing a little harder, the sooner they reached their target the better.

"Fighters incoming!"

"Nine! Three! Cover us, Seven on me."

"Where the feth is the rest of our squadron?" Seven's grumbled complaint was echoed across the comms and Angel simply rolled her eyes. Fething mercenaries, she knew she'd regret taking on a side job from her normal squadron. "Commencing attack run." She glanced to starboard side, checking seven was still with her. As they drew closer her screen began to light up with laser fire, she angled her deflector shields to compensate, heart hammering in her chest. "Target in range. Firing."

Seven echoed her words, four concussion missiles streak for one of the gravity wells as they peeled out of their attack run to face the
oncoming fighters.

@Connory @Skirata@Vettu'honi'oazi@Ortava Zakaz[member="Equinox"]

 

[Ortava Zakaz]

Ortava looked at the Chiss woman and let the corner of his mouth tilt up in a lopsided grin. He reached up quickly and wrapped the huge hand around her slender neck before he pulled her toward him. He planted a kiss on his lips and pushed her away.

"Go kill something." He said as he turned his attention toward the battle and the extar turbo lasers that had just stared pounding his shields. His shields were down to 50 percent and it wasn't getting better. The fire from the frieghter was pounding at his hanger bay and it didn't take a genius, luckily, to figure out that the ship wouldn't take a lot of that action.

He looked at the display for the other ships and noticed the he was heavily out numbered.

"Wait, woman!" he said as he checked he mentally pictured the battle and how it would go. "Recall fighters."

He felt the ship rock as concussion missles rocked the ship and he watched his screens that showed heavy damage, hull breach and his port engine going offline.

"Disengage the interdiction field and move us out of range of that Mando bastard. Tell the fighters to meet us at the base we have no time to wait on their dumb backsides."

The ship started pulling away stil firing on the freighter and now dividing fire to the Mando ship as well. It was tie to live and fight another day.




[member="Connory"] [member="Equinox"] [member="Vettu'honi'oazi"] [member="Skirata"] [member="Angel"]

 

[Lydia Patra]

Friends: Anyone but pirates.
Foes: Pirates

Patrolling the Mara Corridor was deathly boring, it was doubly deathly boring for an elite fighter wing who could have been fighting the Galactic Alliance, but it is what you get when you get caught gambling in the Imperial Navy and you haven't bribed the OOD that week. Which was only because the usual OOD had been off with the Dyran Flu, but still, Lydia considered it grossly unfair to be assigned scut work. Never mind having to live with the rest of the squadron's bitching.

The twelve TIE/Defenders cruised leisurely through hyperspace, the pilot of each reaching the point of being deeply uncomfortable with the cruise and desperate to return back to base.

"Widow, this is Fingers, can't we just turn ba..."

"Stow it Krayt-3, if I have to listen to you for one more minute you'll be walking ho..."

The flickering swirls of hyperspace reverted to the points of real space abruptly, throwing the Black Widow hard against her restraints.

"Squadron, report in!" She snapped, her gaze dropping to her scanner as she flicked it to full active scan, listening to the reports with one ear. Chit. "Widowmakers, we've got a pirate squadron sat square across the Mara lane. I'm reading at least one squadron of what look like Silver Jedi or... they're Archies anyway, as well as some neutrals. Looks like several freighters are under attack. Rancor, Arkania - break and attack! Krayt, on me."

The 402nd smoothly split into it's three flights, dropping into the two-ship pairs that made up the 12-fighter squadron and dropping into a loose forward v-formation with Rancor and Arkania at the rear, Krayt leading the charge as the squadron turned as one to close on the source of the gravity well generator.

Lydia flicked to a general broadcast frequency. "Pirate forces, this is Commander Lydia Patra of Widowmaker Squadron, you are in violation of Imperial Edict 45231D and galactic accords regarding the movement of free trade. Shut down your gravity generators, stow your weapons and break off or we will open fire."

It wouldn't do any good, but it might stop her being shot at by people who might not be her allies long term, but certainly were today.

Maybe this patrol was looking up after all...

Spoiler: Actions

• Krayt Flight (4 x TIE/Defender) - Dropping out of hyperspace and organising.
• Rancor Flight (4 x TIE/Defender) - Dropping out of hyperspace and organising.
• Arkania Flight (4 x TIE/Defender) - Dropping out of hyperspace and organising.

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Ortava Zakaz"]@Skirata@Vettu'honi'oazi[member="Ortava Zakaz"]@Skirata@Vettu'honi'oazi@Angel@Equinox@Lydia Patra

The scarred redhead at sensors sat bolt upright. "Interdiction is down. Maybe we hit something."

"Helm, align to Drogheda. Comms, give me all our small craft. Tractors, grab what salvage you can. Shields, equalize - that should put us at thirty percent overall. All hands, prepare to jump. Fighters, jump for our next waypoint as soon as you can. Cormorant will jump last."

The half squadron had taken fifty percent losses, and the shuttle wasn't in much better shape. They hit lightspeed alongside the two Winter Eagles. Thirty seconds later, the Cormorant followed, trailing shield efflux and smoke. Then, and only then, did Connory allow himself to relax.

 

[Mia Monroe]

"Confrimed hit!"

Escort leaders voice crackled over the comms. "Interdiction field is down. Good work. Now get the hell out of there. Lucky Star is ready to jump."

Her A-wing bucked under incoming fire, shields down to forty percent. "Acknowledged." she replied calmly, streaking away from the centre of the fight towards the merchants ship. A series of new blips rolled across the edge of the battlefield, Angel swung her eyes towards them and let out a low whistle.

"Almost want to stay to watch this show." she mused aloud.

"Yeah, but you'd never get paid." chuckled seven.

"Good point." she replied.

"All hands, jump to designated waypoint on my mark." Escorts voice sounded impatient, almost annoyed at the whole affair. Angel warmed up her hyprdrive, entering the coordrinates as he counted down, grateful that this was her last run. Tomorrow she could have a hot shower, call her Pa and reunite with Spectre squadron.

"...Two, one, mark."

Stars stretched once more into lines and Angel settled back in her pilots chair, smiling to herself.

[member="Connory"] [member="Lydia Patra"] [member="Ortava Zakaz"][member="Skirata"] [member="Vettu'honi'oazi"] [member="Equinox"]