Rebel Retribution [Ask] [Rebel Alliance]

[Aleksandyr Gaillard]

Somewhere at the edge of Primeval space a meager fleet wandered through the infinite depths of darkness. Comprised of outdated, secondary starship designs, the 'fleet' totaled at six vessels in strength. At its helm was a lone warship, Myopic, the quirkily-named Carrack-class light cruiser. Behind it in a standard line formation were five unarmed BFF-One Bulk Freighters; making Myopic the only armed ship in the formation.

Click. Clack.

Jost's fingers tapped along the command chair, his brown eyes peered through the fore viewport. "Status?" He asked. A tired expression masked his face, in reality the young officer was rather bored. Nothing interested him that ever happened on routine runs but one would be a fool to mistake this for complacency.

"No news, Captain." An older Ensign replied, "All freighters are on course... Now that those zealots are in charge, do you think we'll really see any action?" He asked. The Ensign was roughly in his early forties but the wear of service made him look even older than that; his experiences were valued by the crew.

The Captain reacted rather plainly, a blank face drawn over him like he was hiding a good hand before bluffing. "Our loyalties are still to Bastion, it doesn't matter who claims the world." His words were firmly addressed, "Keep watch on those scanners at any rate, I want to know wh--"

"SIR! Multiple ships are appearing on our sensors!"

Ships? "Hail them!"

"Line established, awaiting connection... Now!"

"This is Captain Jost Nasscal of the Bastion Defense Fleet, your approach is unauthorized. Heave to or we'll open fire!"

[member="Juwiela Melec"] | [member="Thane Drexel"] | [member="Sannika Brynn"] | [member="Braha Saca"] | [member="Verd Skirata"] | [member="Roth Tillian "]| [member="Leea Pandac"] | [member="Jake Cabur Tor"]

 

[Juwiela Melec]

Threats were nothing new, and so the one that came crackling through the comms was, for the moment, disregarded. What was new was having an entire squadron of ships assembled in formation, all of them members of Rogue Squadron. This was the first time Juwiela could remember leading the group of pilots as a whole, with no stand-ins for those not present. It was nice to finally have seven pilots she trusted behind her. Some of them were new to the roster, but this would be a chance for that to be remedied, and quickly. Live combat was one way to introduce them to the novelty of flying in a cohesive group, and if it did anything it certainly ensured loyalty. And sometimes that was the only thing holding them together. Being outgunned was one of those times.

Studying the vessels they were approaching with her own unique version of sight, she spoke through the secure comms that connected the eight ships, "This is the real deal, so everybody better get ready. All wings report in." Those final four words uttered sealed the course of the squadron of starfighters. From here on out they operated as one entity, of one mind. The priority of this particular mission was the capture of one of the ships that made up the small fleet, a task made difficult by the craft that had hailed them in the first place. But there was a reason the Rogues were considered the best of the best when it came to piloting, and she intended to make it a lesson these individuals wouldn't soon forget.

Still she didn't deign to retort through the line that had been established between what was assumed to be the commanding craft and the squadron, instead completing a final once-over of the systems of her Yavin-class fighter, the Blind Gambit. It had been damaged in the skirmish against the Ravens on Makeb, but repairs had come swiftly, many of them by her own hand. Once again she was more than ready and willing to risk life and limb for the Alliance she'd called home since as long as she could remember. There was no turning back at this point; no second chances. It was do or die.

"Captain Nasscal, this is Rogue Leader of the Rebel Alliance. We will not flinch."

[member="Jost Nasscal"], [member="Thane Drexel"], [member="Sannika Brynn"], [member="Braha Saca"], [member="Verd Skirata"], @Roth Tillian, [member="Leea Pandac"], [member="Jake Cabur Tor"]

 

[Braha Saca]

"Rogue 4 Checking in, all systems green." He stated loud and proud.

 

[Verd Skirata]

"Rogue 5 all green, what do you want destroyed?" He stated confidently, He hoped he didn't seem too arrogant.
[member="Juwiela Melec"]

 

[Sannika Brynn]

"Yo, yo! Rogue Three is standing by," Sannika called in over the Rogue comms. A message over a public frequency had been sent to the approaching Rebel squadron, but they pretty much ignored it. Rogue Leader had a bit of a retort, but nothing too personal had been said--yet. No one had talked about the other's mother so far.

The twi'lek pilot gripped her ship's yoke with a violent enthusiasm, ready to get back in the game with this raiding business. They were not called 'Rogues' for nothing. Someone had made the mistake of bringing a convoy out into open space, and the Alliance fighters would soon capitalize on such an opportunity. Rogue Three and her Kantankerous Kill were back.

"What's the first move, Lead, Oh Great Lead?"

[member="Juwiela Melec"], [member="Thane Drexel"], [member="Braha Saca"], [member="Verd Skirata"], [member="Roth Tillian"], [member="Leea Pandac"], [member="Jake Cabur Tor"], [member="Jost Nasscal"]

 

[Thane Drexel]

Thane pulled back on the throttle as he fell into formation behind Rogue Leader.

"Rogue 2 calling in, Whiskey Shooter on standby."

Finishing the runthrough of his system calibration, Thane locked his weapon systems in lethal and prepared to engage the first target Rogue Leader deemed worthy. His Nevermore bomber was the heaviest ship in the squadron, and carried the biggest payload, now the only thing he needed was a target.

[member="Sannika Brynn"] [member="Braha Saca"] [member="Juwiela Melec"] [member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Aleksandyr Gaillard]

"Orders?" The entire bridge heard the broadcast.

"Is this the same Rebel Alliance that attacked at Helska?" He wondered. The Primeval provided very little information on their encounters, technically speaking he served an independent armed forces. Based on their reply it was clear they weren't going to heave to and the Captain intended to make due on his promise. "Turn the vessel 60 degrees starboard, have the freighters continue two klicks fore and then do the same. At 60 degrees full speed ahead, we're going to give them the hook.", the orders were given and the plan was simple. The bulk freighters would maintain course as his warship angled itself somewhat towards the enemy but not too much where it couldn't give chase and catch up with the formation. Tactically the logical path for the enemies would be to swoop in around from behind and then bank port back towards the unarmed freighters and effectively escaping the blast radius of the Myopic. However, the beauty of his formation is that once the freighters emulate his pattern the Myopic would become an armed wall with an 180 degree combat radius.

"Enemy formation is numbering at least eight vessels!" The sensory officer repeated what was seen on his screen.

Jost pondered on what strategy they might undertake... Clearly they had the audacity to attack with a single squadron against his warship, he may have been in a corvette but the Carrack-class was heavily armed.

"Don't let them jam us, I doubt a single squadron would be out here as part of a fleet... They're likely scroungers or pirates. Send out a message, call for reinforcements; don't let them know it's a ruse.", his voice was soft but loud enough for the officers to hear with clarity.

[member="Juwiela Melec"] | [member="Braha Saca"] | [member="Verd Skirata"] | [member="Sannika Brynn"] | [member="Thane Drexel"]

A message was sent out with weak encryption.

"This is MYOPIC requesting immediate assistance in quadrant ALPHA DASH FOUR BRAVO SEVEN SEVEN CHARLIE. Repeat requesting immediate assistance in quadrant A DASH FOUR BRAVO SEVEN SVEN CHARLIE. This is MYOPIC, requesting assistance to all response fleets! We're under attack and need immediate combat support."

 

[Leea Pandac]

"Rogue Seven checking in." Leea smiled, it had been a while and now it was time to have some fun.

She hadn't been in the cockpit of her Yavin-class fighter for quite some time. She looked forward to getting back into the groove of battles. She might have preferred the safety of a larger vessel to have been as backup, but then she had to get used to it.

[member="Juwiela Melec"]

 

[Jake Cabur Tor]

"Rogue 8 all systems go, ready when you are Rogue lead!" Jake said. This was his first real life combat outside of the simulator. There was a certain joy to this, as well as a sense of danger. He was a jedi though, and the fast reflexes that the force allowed him to have were a most valuable asset. He was ready.

 

[Shorwarr]

"Rraaawwgrr A-oo-mu karrraa aarryyy(Rogue 9 Reporting In)," Shorwarr rumbled over the com. He tilted The Purifier to match the rest of the squadron. He hadn't named the ship, of course. Shorwarr didn't speak a word of Basic. It impeded on his communications with the rest of Rogue Squadron, but he didn't mind. He was used to working on his own anyway. He was by far the oldest of the squadron and the most experienced, so he didn't need to rely on communication to win dogfights. It also helped when they had to be in complete silence. The squadron would be used to not being able to communicate with him anyway..He shifted the starfighter into lock-on as he maneuvered with the rest of the squadron. He grinned slightly as he saw the enemy in his sights. Wookiees may have been a peaceful species, but Shorwarr certainly wasn't

 

[Verd Skirata]

Verd didn't know they had a wookie in the squad, but since he was rather new, he decided to go with it. He had understood what the wookie had said, hanks to his father's rigorous training and schooling to prepare hom for life among the many species of the galaxy. Fortunately for him, wookie was one of the few languages he had learned, at least understood, since he couldn't produce the growls and roars of the language from his vocal chords, so he would have to hope the wookie knew basic. He made a mental note to buy the wookie a drink and have a chat when this op was over.

 

[Juwiela Melec]

That was what Juwiela liked to hear. Regardless of the odds stacked against them, Rogue Squadron was always ready and raring to go, no matter the mission. They were the backbone of space battles when it came to the Alliance, and superiority in the air was one thing they boasted. That would be something their newest adversary would soon learn. Unquestionably the name of the Rebels would be remembered long after this day had passed. And in victory, if everything went according to plan. This convoy would be leaving one ship lighter, one way or another.

"Nothing just yet, Prudii. You'll get your chance, don't worry." Of course, she wasn't exactly certain if any of the ships before them held starfighters, but that would make their job easier, if anything. It meant less dogfights to concern themselves with, and evading the heavy turbolasers would be simple compared to attempting to outmaneuver any enemy ships of a smaller size. Heavy firepower was well and good when it was necessary, but the same in smaller increments often did more damage than one accredited for. No one seemed to realize that until it was too late. All the better for them.

Frowning thoughtfully as the barely enciphered message sputtered through the comms, she briefly pondered their options. While she was young for a pilot and even younger to be leading a squadron of them, she'd been flying long enough to know that if it had been a real distress call, the chances of their being so careless as to let the enemy receive the message as well were slim to none. A child she might have been to some, but she was far from naive. Still, it was never good to assume, especially in a battle situation. So she would treat it as a legitimate signal, at least until no others were confirmed to have arrived.

"Alright, we're going to try something new. Let's dive under the armed corvette and pull up shooting. Take out their guns on that side, and then we'll worry about our next move. Deal with any enemy craft they might deploy appropriately." Orders spoken, she began leading them on that same maneuver, thankful once more for the sheer speed of her starfighter. Now it was showtime.

[member="Verd Skirata"], [member="Shorwarr"], [member="Jake Cabur Tor"], [member="Leea Pandac"], [member="Jost Nasscal"], [member="Thane Drexel"], [member="Sannika Brynn"], [member="Braha Saca"]

 

[Thane Drexel]

Punching the last tiles on his console, Thane was in full combat mode. One last swig of his flask, and Thane had his game face on.

The Nevermore bomber was the tool Thane selected for this mission, it was his every mission tool. The only bomber in the squadron made Thane a commodity when firepower was needed. Holding an impressive 18 Proton Torpedoes, the Nevermore hit hard and often. Being one of the fastest ships in the squadron and being invisible to radar, Thane could Strike quick and quiet at any time. His typical strike was being the first to hit and then let the others handle fighters and then strike again.

"Rogue 2, torpedoes locked and ready. Let me know where you want them. They won't see it coming."




[member="Juwiela Melec"][member="Verd Skirata"]@Shorwarr@Jake Cabur Tor[member="Leea Pandac"][member="Jost Nasscal"][member="Sannika Brynn"][member="Braha Saca"]

 

[Shorwarr]

Shorwarr rumbled softly as he heard the leader's instructions, but since he didn't speak a word of Basic the pilot might have been telling him to drown a small child. Shorwarr didn't need language, however. He could tell by the movement of the fighters where he needed to go, so he followed suit. Normally, attacking a corvette with less than a squadron of starfighters was a suicide mission, but Shorwarr had faith in the rest of the group to stay alive. His craft had enough shielding to take a couple hits, but then again Shorwarr was supposed to be avoiding the lasers.

Instead of exactly following the lead of the others, which might get him killed, Shorwarr tried a different tactic. He pointed his starfighter down and dropped out of the battle briefly, attempting to stay out of the way of any laser tracking systems. Then, he shot back up, attempting to climb behind the cruiser and get into the blindspot near the stern where the engines were.

The next part was the trickiest. In space, just killing the engines wouldn't stop you. Breaking was hard with no friction in a vacuum. Instead, getting a pure stop involved a combination of twisting and turning the starfighter and precise engine timings to cancel the momentum and achieve a pure stop. Even a slight miscalculation could send you too far, or even into another ship. Breathing deeply, Shorwarr tightened his focus as he approached the back of the cruiser, ready to pull the stop.

 

[Sannika Brynn]

"Here we go..." Sannika's fighter lurched as she kicked in the afterburners for a short moment to float on in to Rogue Leader's four o'clock. "I'm your wing buddy, Lead."

She was one of the least experienced of all the pilots in Rogue Squadron, to be honest, but her tenure with this starfighter group was beyond what most of the others had experienced. The young twi'lek had seen missions that were short-lived, very intense, or even barely got out of the hangar bay. Today was one of those days when she felt like anything could be up for them. A d0sitress beacon had been sent, and that could mean trouble later on. They would need to capitalize immediately.

Pulling her old and beat-up Adril fighter in for its last mission before retirement, Rogue Three was ready to start off the new era of the Alliance with a bang. She would ride Juwiela's tail, slipping underneath the ventral hull of the enemy corvette until it was time to let loose some plasma.

[member="Jost Nasscal"], [member="Juwiela Melec"], [member="Braha Saca"], [member="Verd Skirata"], [member="Thane Drexel"], [member="Leea Pandac"], [member="Jake Cabur Tor"], [member="Shorwarr"]

 

[Jake Cabur Tor]

Jake, being at the back of the squadron saw [member="Shorwarr"]'s departure. He knew that He shouldn't allow the pilot to break off of the formation alone, so he decided to follow the wookie's fighter on his tail, and locked 2 of his proton torpedoes on to the vessel they were attacking's engines. He would fire when Rogue 9 released his missiles.

 

[Verd Skirata]

Verd followed the squad's movements as closely as he could, trying to make the squad look professional, when he looked on his radar screen and saw 2 fighters peeling off and heading towards the engines. Dikuts! he thought , but he himself followed [member="Juwiela Melec"]'s lead on this one. Remembering the ship's layout, he picked the turret that would best be attacked by his flight path, but tried to avoid hitting the same turret as another member. He armed 2 torpedoes and told himself that he would target 2 turrets in the time he had in this run.

 

[Aleksandyr Gaillard]

The Myopic wasn't going to be overwhelmed by basic tactics. An obvious point was that any starship's weakness were the ventral and stern areas which generally were the least defended if at all. The Carrack-class light cruiser was notably quick and well known to keep pace with fighters but more importantly it was surprisingly well armed carrying 10 heavy turbolasers and 20 laser cannons. Not to mention the 5 tractor beams which could be used to harass the squadrons.

"Orders?" The Ensign requested.

"Rotate 45 degrees along the X axis. Fire when ready, I want our tractor beams engaged; net 'em." Jost calmly ordered and without hesitation the crew began to act. The ship quickly rotated along the X axis until its starboard was facing below--relatively speaking--and in range to engage the enemy fighters.

Laser volleys escaped the eight starboard laser cannons. The tractor beams were active and attempting to disrupt the flight patterns of the squadron when able but there was one small problem, however. Starfighters are quick but the most dangerous fact of the matter was that a squadron can split and reform as many times as they like. Superior mobility could very well overcome superior firepower just as superior tactics could overcome a superior strategy. In this case, his strategy was a defensive one and that's something they'd probably expect. "I don't think they bought our bluff... Let's reaffirm it, contact our freighters on the same 'broken' frequency: Order them to rig the engines to blow in the event they would be captured." If they didn't believe his ruse, maybe they'd begin to wonder if their communications is actually faulty; and that a fleet was on route.

"The freighters would be blind to the bluff as well, sir." He protested.

"That's the point, if we want them to believe our bluff then we'll need to believe it ourselves."

Everyone was playing their hand but for the time being Jost had the dealer in his pocket.

[member="Sannika Brynn"] | [member="Juwiela Melec"] | [member="Verd Skirata"] | [member="Jake Cabur Tor"] | [member="Shorwarr"] | [member="Thane Drexel"] | [member="Leea Pandac"]

 

[Braha Saca]

The call for the freighters to set their engines to explode seemed a bit drastic, but Braha didn't know what exactly he was dealing with here. He armed torpedoes and followed The squadron's leader on her path under the corvette. As he came up the other side, he targeted one of the weapons, that was least likely to be fired upon by the other members of the squadron and let one of his proton torpedoes away, then taking some incentive, launched a torpedo at a turret on the far side of the craft. The manuever had lasted a tad longer than he had hoped, and he had broken up the formation a bit when he had done so, but both of his targets were destroyed, or too badly damaged for use. He was sure that the squad would be fine with a little risk for success. Just then, he got his starboard side airfoil clipped with a near miss by a turbolaser cannon. 'Not good', he said to himself. "Lead this is 4, I have been hit, starboard shields failing." He gave an update on his ship's status, no reason anyone should be left in the dark.
[member="Juwiela Melec"]

 

[Thane Drexel]

As Thane stayed back and awaited the squadron to make contact, his scanners picked up weapons activating and forward facing tractor beams launching.

Break, tractor beams activated, I repeat, break!! Attack from the side, the beams can't reach there.


Thane pulled high over the Cruiser and came down from above, aimed at the bridge and the sensor array. Using his superior speed, that even the cruiser couldn't match, Thane fired at 50 meters from the target and arched Port and away. Six Proton Torpedoes raced towards the Bridge and the Sensor Array. If he could disable the Sensor, they would have to visually see Rogue Squadron to hit them, then, they'd be at the disadvantage.


Rogue Two, coming in for a bombing run, eyes up.

[member="Jost Nasscal"] [member="Verd Skirata"] [member="Jake Cabur Tor"] [member="Sannika Brynn"] [member="Shorwarr"] [member="Juwiela Melec"]