Innocent Profiteering

[Ronan Nakasla]

[member=John Kranston]
[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

The job sounded simple, in theory. Get to Ord Mirit, meet up with the man who seemed to be a bounty hunter, steal some weapons, and sell them on the Outer Rim, likely to Hutts to be sold again on a black market. Standard smuggling idea, and the Lorsan Tekka was built for that. Unfortunately, the simplest plans usually end up going the most wrong, and right now was no exception.

Oh they got the weapons, and they even got off-world, but now they had Sith Starfighters chasing after them, and they couldn't make a direct jump with Sith hot on their trail. They could be tracked along their vector and then they would have an enemy with the Hutts as well. It was a tricky and unpleasant situation. Crux was not handling it well.

"Get on the gunner's seat, the computer isn't cutting it against these fighters!" he shouted out to his only companion on the ship. In the meantime, he was gunning for a small gathering of asteroids. Hopefully he could lose the fighters in there, one way or another.

 

[William McPride]

Kranston had felt the violent rocking of the ship. He tried to stabilize himself so he could look through the loot. Jules called for him in the gunners seat.

"I'm on it" Kranston yelled back. "Can't be to hard, right?"

He hoped into the gunners seat, prepared to blast some sith ships into pieces.

It was hard.

Kranston was blasting away, but he didn't seem to get anything. He landed a couple shots here and there, but nothing to damage the enemy ships to hard.

"This thing got a lock-on system?" Kranston yelled back.

[member="Jules Crux"] [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[cheshire_kitty]

Enemies: [member="Jules Crux"] | [member="John Kranston "]
Ships: 50x Starfighters

Several squads of Starfighters chased after what appeared to be a non Sith Light Frighter. In the cargo hold of the Frighter, were a couple of crates of weapons from a recent shipment the One Sith had received.

Earlier, Konrad had sensed something was off and sent a couple of his men to check on a recent shipment of weapons. Much to his annoyance, his hunch was right. The shipment was a couple of crates short. Further adding to this annoyance, he was currently attending an important but rather pointless meeting as a formality and unfortunately could not chase after and deal with these hooligans himself on a Stardestroyer he had "borrowed" from the One Sith armoury.

"If you return empty handed, commit suicide and save me the time I would have spent hunting you down," Konrad ordered his men coldly. The squads assigned to the capture of the light freighter and its crew cussed under their breath after receiving the order.

To the pilots that chased after the light freighter, this was a matter of life and death and no action they could do was too extreme. The Starfighters separated into groups of ten with thirty firing at the ship from left, right and centre while twenty stayed behind the ones engaged in combat, ready to replace any that were shot down by the freighter. The needed to either capture or destroy the ship.

 

[William McPride]

After repeating fire, Kranston had managed to take down a few ships.

"Whenever I get one down, another pops up! Do we have any missiles or anything that can take out a group of them?" shouted from the gunner seat.

Kranston continued to fire again and again, still with horrid accuracy.

"I wasn't built for this hell! I'm in it for the ground combat!"

Kranston still recolonized that there was no possibility of landing, as they would be gunned down if they did. He kept on firing, with the gun sliding side to side.

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] [member="Jules Crux"]

 

[Ronan Nakasla]

"Yeah, button above your head on the left!" Jules called back, "Hold on!" he yelled then, and the ship pitched hard to one side. If not for the straps, he would have been thrown across the cockpit. This gave [member=John Kranston] the opportunity of a greater firing angle on the Sith fighters. After that manoeuvre, the ship rolled and ducked behind an asteroid for temporary cover.

"I've got protons in one tube and concussions in another, but those only fire out the front!" he answered, "We would need mines! I don't fething have mines!" he wove through the asteroid field with flying hands. Every movement followed with another movement. The Tekka was fast but it was no Millennium Falcon, and starfighters could still keep up with it.

"Just remember, those guns are Particle Beam! Hit near a fighter and you'll splash it! Try and aim for close groups!" with that, he skimmed over one of the larger asteroids and then switched to flying close to another, like some kind of half-suicidal S-shape.

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[cheshire_kitty]

Enemies: [member="Jules Crux"] | [member="John Kranston "]
Ships: 45x Starfighters

Konrad look down at his wrist mounted DataPad to see that 5 Starfighters' signals were missing. Whoever was in charge of piloting lessons was in need of a good scolding, the Starfighters haven't even been gone for fifteen minutes and five were already shot down.

The Starfighters maintained their position with fifteen keeping a reasonable distance away from those in the front line. Instead of firing at the Light Freighter from all sides, one group shifted their focus on the ship's cannon while the other two groups moved to aim at the ship's thrusters. Destroying the thrusters would render the escape of the crew more difficult.

Methodically, the squad leader, who was among those unengaged in the back, plotted to forcefully bring down the Light Freighter. The moment Brigadier General issued the order was the moment he started to regret that he did not join the Galactic Republic or Alliance instead of the One Sith. The sense of thrill and danger that he found in the dark side was not appealing as it once was.

 

[William McPride]

William was blasting away. He hit the left wing of one of the fighters, causing it to trail smoke. Seconds later the wing exploded, sending the ship into a fiery spiral. After some shots, William felt a violent shaking, and couldn't fire the gun.

"Guns dead. They must have shot something on the surface of the ship connecting to the gun. If you've got some metal and a welding tool, I can probably fix it from the inside, except for there would be one problem."

Jules inquired, and William replied

"With us in this asteroid field, the ship is flying around. We need to get out of it. I can't fix something if I'm bouncing up and down like a ball."

(P.S. If you didn't notice I got a name change to William McPride. Sorry for it being in the middle of the RP.)

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] [member="Jules Crux"]

 

[Ronan Nakasla]

[member="William McPride"] ; [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

"Dead? What do you mean dead?!" then Jules checked the shields, let out a loud swear, and toggled the shields to partially direct power toward the aft than the front of the ship. Hitting an asteroid would cream them anyway.

"There's plenty of tools in a locker in the starboard cargo hold!" he called out. He went quiet for a moment and the ship jerked as he squeezed the YT-1300 through a hole in an asteroid. Hopefully that would choke a few of the fighters and cause them to crash. Then he spun back into weaving through giant space rocks.

"Try the other gun! Ventral side of the ship! Those should still work unless something fried the power coupling to both turrets!" that said, he hoped that his next move wouldn't kill them. In a flurry of movements, he engaged reverse thrust to pull the ship to a stop while he spun the ship sideways, fired a concussion missile, then punched the SLAM and pitched forward at the same time. Ideally, the combination of manoeuvres should pull the Tekka to a halt, making the pursuing fighters fly forward at speed and into the blast radius of the missile. Then the freighter would dart in a different direction as fast as the sublight acceleration motor would pull and hopefully faster than the other fighters could realise what had happened. Best case scenario he took out a swarm of fighters and darts away unscathed. Worst case, the shields took a few hits. Both were acceptable outcomes in Jules' mind. Now, to get out of this asteroid field. His passenger needed smooth sailing and the pilot had an idea to get out of the system without leading them straight to Hutt space.

 

[cheshire_kitty]

Enemies: [member="Jules Crux"] | [member="William McPride"]
Ships: 38 Starfighters (Lost 7 in the asteroid field)

The Sith Starfighter pilots watched the Light Freighter enter the asteroid field but they had no intention of giving up chase. If they were killed in action, so be it. At least it saved them from the wrath of a certain Brigadier General.

Ed, one of the Starfighter pilots chasing after the ship, saw several explosions in his peripheral vision which he assumed were unfortunate pilots who were unable to dodge and efficently weave their way through the asteroid field. This was not what he wanted. He did not want to die like this. Ed had always thought that he would die in a battle fighting for the One Sith, not chasing some theives. This was not meant to happen. The second the Brigadier General gave the order, he felt like he had to choose between either a less painful or a more painful death.

The Starfighters did not relent and kept on the Light Freighter's tail, weaving around the incoming asteroids and shooting at it when they had the opportunity. There was no room for failure. It was either suceed or die trying.

 

[William McPride]

Will hopped into the other gun, trying it out. After firing a few shots, he realized it wouldn't be any good.

"The thing works but the targeting is off, and on account of my bad aim anyway, it wont do us any good. I'm going to hop down into the cargo hold and gather some supplies. Tell me once we've got out of this field. I've got a small amount of time until we don't have any cover, and we're sitting ducks!"

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] [member="Jules Crux"]

 

[Ronan Nakasla]

[member="William McPride"] ; [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

"Just my luck..." Jules complained.

To be honest, he was quite a lucky man with all things considered. Today was just a bad day. He slipped through a closing gap of asteroids and hoped the soldiery type trying to get to the cargo hold wasn't getting banged up too hard. He punched coordinates into the navicomputer while holding the ship into a spin with his other hand. He looked up to see the edge of the field nearing, and he bit his inner cheek in concentration.

"Hold on!" he yelled to the back of the ship. As soon as the next asteroid passed, he punched the 'go' button. The hyperdrive revved, the ship lurched, but then that signature sound that something in a modified YT-1300 went wrong and he frowned.

"Nevermind, just either get those guns working or the hyperdrive to turn on!" he screamed, then went back to evasive manoeuvres. Only now, he had to fly a little gentler so Will could work and not get shot out of the sky. Why the frak did he agree to steal from a Sith-controlled Ordinance world?

 

[cheshire_kitty]

Enemies: [member="Jules Crux"] | [member="William McPride"]
Ships: 38 Starfighters

The Starfighters were spread out and continued raining fire on the Light Freighter at whatever opening they got as the weaved around the asteroids. A couple brave Starfighter pilots broke from their squad and flew within a meter of the ship and open fired, concentrating on the ship's left thruster. The onboard weaponry may not have been the strongest, but with two beams targeting the thruster, they were bound to do some damage. Once they took the first out, they would focus on the other.

Although they acted alone and took a risk in this act, their commander quietly thanked the pair. If it took the lives of all those currently under his command then so be it. He had just saved enough money to start a family and had a wife to return to and a child to create with her. It would be too cruel if he was to die now just when things were starting to go well for him.

 

[William McPride]

"Guns fixed. I patched up some pipes and such, just get it permanently fixed when we're safe. If they hit it again, the guns will go down permanently. Now then, lets see about this hyperdrive."

William picked up the small toolbox he snagged for carrying the tools, and went over to the hyperdrive generator. He poked around for a minute, only to find some shredded pieces of metal stuck inside it.

"I don't know how this happened, but there's some metal stuck in here. I can get it out, but then I need to repair it a little."

William picked the small pieces out, and then tinkered with the generator. He patched some open parts together, and rewired some cables. After about five minutes, the generator made a loud hissing sound, and started shaking. William stabilized it, and finished up.

"Hyperdrives fixed...for now. Use it only if we have to, as I'm not sure if it's going to bust mid-drive."

William set the toolbox on the floor, and hopped back in the gunners seat. He fired some shots, and hit the gun on one of the enemy ships.

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] [member="Jules Crux"]

 

[Ronan Nakasla]

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]; [member="William McPride"]

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. With no asteroids for cover, the Tekka was far more exposed to the fighters. He was focused on flying, so he did not talk, but he still heard Will's varied reports from across the ship. He frowned, then. One jump, then they would be forced to stop for repairs. That meant that they would need to hide, and perhaps nowhere populated. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. He toggled the navicomputer to the Roche Asteroids. It was a little over halfway to Hutt Space, in Republic territory. It would hopefully stall the Sith long enough to let the Tekka find somewhere to hide and repair, then make the rest of the trip to deliver the weapons.

"Hold on and aim straight!" he called out for the who-knows-what time today, then he pulled the ship around, switched shields full front, locked the cannon Will was not manning to forward position, and then flew head-on at the pursuing starfighters. He sprayed into them and released a torpedo into the biggest cluster. Surely oncoming fire would knock out a gun or two, but the speed of the YT-1300 would let it pierce the veil swarm and exit to open space again, this time pointing in the right direction to make the jump. He primed the hyperdrive again, and hoped they could spare the last few seconds for the navicomputer to finalise calculations.

 

[cheshire_kitty]

Enemies: [member="Jules Crux"] | [member="William McPride"]
Ships: 36x Starfighters (1 flew himself into the left thruster)

There were only 37 Starfighter signals left when Konrad checked his wrist mounted DataPad. Whoever was in charge of training the One Sith Starfighers pilots was going to get a very stern talking to from Konrad once the meeting ends. Thirteen Starfighters shot down by a Light Freighter, their instructor must be a karking idiot or something.

Ethan watched as Dave, the pilot of the Starfighter next to him who aimed their fire at the thruster of the ship with him get shot down. Witnessing the others get shot down did not affect him as much but not Dave. Dave was different. Ethan and Dave underwent training and had built a strong bond over time. Out of grief for Dave, Ethan flew his Starfighter into the thruster of the ship, ending his own life. He had promised Dave's pregnant wife that he would take care of him but he had failed her.

The commander watched in silence from afar as Ethan flew his Starfighter into the left thruster of the ship. Two of his best men were gone like that. Not allowing himself to dwell too much on the deaths, the commander ordered the 25 of his remaining ships to get into position to concentrate fire on the ship and hopefully open a hole on its body.

 

[William McPride]

((sorry it's been a long time since I replied. There has been a death in the family, so I wont be on until around the beginning of February so please just put this on pause for the time being, sorry.))

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] [member="Jules Crux"]

 

[William McPride]

"Look, I've got some bad news" Will yelled back "I'm not going to be able to take 'em. I'm out of torpedoes, and even with the targeting system, I can't hold them off. We need to land somewhere and hide, if possible. Seems that's the only way we can get out of this, unless you've got a better idea?" Will fired his gun several more times, and managed to gun down another enemy ship.

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] [member="Jules Crux"]