Raid off Anirc (Vheissu Ireles)

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vheissu Ireles"]

SPACE NEAR VORTUSA
MOON OF ANIRC
PRIMEVAL TERRITORY
UNKNOWN REGIONS

The Corellian YGX freighter -- fast and tough -- exited hyperspace just as the ionite shipment clawed its way out of Vortusa's grav well. Anirc was Primeval heartland, but a minor world, and its moon Vortusa was comparably minor. Small population meant that the local HUMINT contact wouldn't last long. Maybe he would even get pinched before he could be extracted, or maybe he would go to ground. Either way, that meant Vastor had one shot at Vortusa's ionite.

A squadron of old TIE Tarals -- fast and tough -- slashed in ahead of the YGX, harrying the ionite transport to keep it from dipping back toward the planet's defenses. The YGX thrummed around Vastor, vibrating through the control panel and his shock couch, as heavy turbolasers crashed into the target. Kill shields, have a Taral drop a mag pulse, use laser cannons to rip open the cargo bay, use tractor beams to pull out some cargo pods, ???, profit.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Adalric Vastor"]

Primeval Space… used to go with a different name, Sith something something Empire. Point was, whenever a nation falls- and it didn’t really matter if it tried to merge with something else- most military material gets left behind, too expensive to start trudging it all back to HQ or try and return it to the old manufacturer.

Which brought us back to the response team, bunch of Dominus fighters approaching rather quickly. Guy had picked a good spot to hit ‘em though, because he was right. Minor world, mostly busy with the Mandalorians at the border?

All equals to not a lot of a response team, seemingly.

Most of the patrol went to engage the Tarals, keep ‘em busy. The other ones though? They went towards the YGX.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vheissu Ireles"]

"Sensor contacts. Dominus-class."

"Feth. Sword Leader, make a screen, but don't get in the way. I'll light the line. Futz, tractor on the freighter, then pass tractor control to my station."

"Done. It's not disabled yet. Shields down...now."

"Barth, take out their engines."

The YGX shuddered. "Done."

"Here we go."

The YGX could turn on a dime -- it had the maneuverability of a ship half its size or less. When coupled with the tractor pivot, then the engine shutoff...well, some fun things happened quickly.

The YGX spun more or less in place, flying backward with the crippled transport back-to-front beneath it, caught in a wide-angle tractor beam. Defensive laser cannons ripped into the transport's spine; cargo modules began to float up toward a waiting hatch in a trickle.

The heavy turbolasers and lesser turbos tracked through the Taral donut-screen and lined up with the oncoming Dominii, still too distant for laser cannons or warheads, though not by much.

The YGX fired everything.

tl; dr: I have fighter screen and am shooting at you. My engines are off.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Adalric Vastor"]

Guns were fired, trajectory got adjusted to angle itself on the same vector as the Tarals. Meant that they would need to adjust their formation, in the meanwhile one of the Dominii got hit anyway. Can’t have all the luck in the world in this place, gotta understand… this ain’t no military-grade squadron trainees.

They didn’t have Imperial training or anything, just the heart and bones of people who do what needs to be done every once in a while. Their comrade was down and they started shooting, tracking against the formation of the Tarals.

They were approaching the target.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vheissu Ireles"]

"Sluggish, uncoordinated -- they've got a good commander and good hardware but they don't have the training. Interesting. Funny thing about a Dominus...it's just too fething maneuverable for anyone but a really good pilot. Sword Leader, give me a group conical loose slip-jaw with target swap. I'll cut the fire." The Dominii might have the edge on the Tarals, but part of that edge was a disadvantage, especially against pilots who'd drilled together in a disciplined way.

The YGX stopped firing at the oncoming fighters, and the Tarals swarmed into the circle, their trajectories making a double-napped cone. They passed close together at the apex, but not crashing, each taking a new for warheads, each target getting bracketed from the side. For the Dominii to keep the Tarals between themselves and the big guns, their spreading formation would need to close in again...and deal with the chaotic element of evading those off-center warhead locks while their lined-up targets suddenly broke to assault their divergent wingmates. The tighter they drew the net, the more likely they'd run into each other. The looser they stayed, the better chance Vastor would have of picking them off with the heavy turbos as the Taral ring converged. The idea here was to distract the Dominii from getting off a massed warhead wave at the YGX and disrupting the whole plan -- which they could do, if they wanted to take serious warheads from the Tarals.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Adalric Vastor"]

They were rookies mostly. Guys without a lot of experience, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t see the problematic situation that would arise if they tried to keep the Tarals between themselves and the firing guns of the YGX.

Situations as these needed someone to make a choice, either or, either or. People would die regardless, but that was the risk of signing up, no? And so the decision was made, spread formation was retained and instead they targeted the YMX frontal.

Warheads at a go, fighters were going down, but they would get this schutta. Dead or alive.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vheissu Ireles"]

The Tarals slashed into the Dominii in a spreading ring, warheads first, then cannons. Unopposed, untargeted by their enemies. The Dominii were tough ships, but the Tarals were their little brothers, and still better than most modern line fighters for being ten years old and then some. Sword Squadron had its pick of targets, and the raw speed to minimize the enemy reaction/maneuvering window. Most of them had been armed with concussion missiles; some, instead, had been armed with light mag pulses to capture the transport. At a guess, Dominii were now getting disabled or destroyed.

Didn't stop the Dominii from getting off that massed warhead volley, though. With a curse, Vastor switched the tractor beam to pressor mode and put full power to engines. The YGX leaped away from the gutted transport, trailing ionite crates. Some had been taken into the cargo bay, maybe enough -- maybe. Quad lasers and turbolasers fired at the ring of oncoming warheads, but the Dominii had been spread too far for sympathetic detonation to be a thing, and turbos weren't built for this. Shields dropped to eighty, sixty, forty, twenty, ten. The ship rocked with every impact, but the overpowered engines and a long moment of inertia kept the YGX on course.

At full burn, the YGX began to enter the middle of the double circle, insulated from the Dominii by the attacking Tarals. Its cannons blazed at targets of opportunity, though its big guns didn't have the fire arc for this sort of scenario.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Adalric Vastor"]

Dominii were being disabled, neutralized, pick your own noun for the happenings. But their focus was mostly premiered at the YGX, switching from the one to ion weaponry foremost.

This was a thing of A-Wings against TIE Defenders (according to the experts), which meant that they needed to break the YGX if they wanted to halt this raid in its track. Ion weapons locked and things went boom.

In the meanwhile the Commander really hoped that the next engagement would involve actual fighting, finally get some shiny new powers and then spend the first fight in a ship. Where was the fairness in that?

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vheissu Ireles"]

Where indeed.

The YGX's tractor beam lashed out, snagging a disabled Dominus and dragging it close as ion fire whittled down the last of the big transport's shields. Vastor rerouted the navicomputer output to a hangar datalink and stood. "All aboard that's going aboard."

***

This class of ship held, among other things, another ship. A dropship, to be precise. In this case, he'd gone for a Niathal-class shuttle: Mon Cal redundant shields, tractor beam, diverse weapon loadout...and enough cargo space for the stolen ionite crates. As the YGX's lights started to flicker, Vastor and the other five crewers slipped into the shuttle. The hangar's atmo field disengaged an instant before the hatch closed, jostling Vastor with serious wind.

The YGX was dead in the water. The Niathal inside was most definitely not. Out there in the black, the Tarals broke and ran, scattering in all directions to make their hyperjumps. With each Dominus focused on the YGX, the Tarals had a clear shot at safety.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Adalric Vastor"]

A portion of the fighters stayed on the YGX, seized fire though after the freighter was shut down and seemingly no longer firing at them. The Tarals were let go too, it would have been a waste of time anyway, they hadn’t been focusing on ‘em and trying to catch them now would have been a goose chase if anything.

The rest of the fighters went back to the ionite transport which the freighter had gutted. Because in the end they had managed to put a stop to the freighter itself, its fighters were sent fleeing and they weren’t here to wage some kind of unholy war.

See if there were survivors first, revenge? Maybe another day, maybe.

At the same time a call for reinforcements was called, mid-priority. They would arrive, but not all that soon. In the end this wasn't a critical situation, ionite shipment ransacked? This wasn't a capital battle.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vheissu Ireles"]

From inside the crippled YGX, the Niathal's sensor range wasn't much, but it was enough to recognize that at least some Dominus-class ships were still nearby. That put paid to the idea of de-ionizing and repairing the YGX. Any minute now, the fighters might get the order to destroy the transport -- so time was an element. And risking a man, or himself, to wipe the YGX's navicomputer just wasn't in the cards.

So out the airlock went a pit droid with one of the Niathal's mag pulse warheads.

Then out the hangar door went the Niathal.

The Dominii noticed it instantly. Cannon fire hammered into redundant Mon Cal shields as the shuttle's navicomputer continued the calculations begun by the YGX. Behind it, inside the YGX, a weapons-grade electromagnetic pulse wiped and scrambled the derelict's computers at close range.

The Niathal clawed for distance, pouring on speed.