Faction Spreading the Flame - RTL

[Jared Starchaser]

It was always fun to launch a new fighter. And to take it for the shake down cruise as well. Jared Starchaser, the heir of the Starchaser legend, was much different from his father. He was raised in the Jedi arts and found himself looking at the next task. He had an escort mission to help run for the Underground. And while his sister was away into the Unknown Regions, he was returning to the known galaxy.

While he may not be a Jedi, he was more. He was a Jensaarai student, a Warden of the Sky, and a hunter. He was here to ferret out the dark side and the Imperial risk, like his father did. It wasn't for the religion, it was for the principal. And that was why he was here.

The modified Preybird, painted navy with yellow highlights was upgraded in the Starchaser style. The ship's shields, navigation, and engines were boosted, but it did lose some of its missiles and one of its laser cannons. As the ship was entering real space, Jared found himself bringing the fighter into a roll as the freighter entered the system.

And when he was specifying freighter, he meant the one that he was having to keep his focus on. The others? They were still serving a purpose, mostly supply delivery, and more than one had Underground agents aboard. Time to get a foothold in yet another world. Currently, they were around the world of Javin, well, one of the outlying moons.

Jared Starchaser brought his Preybird up to combat speed. The world was not quite controlled by the Sith, but it did seem to have some minor warlord, according to reports. Could be only a matter of time if the Sith made it there, but it was far enough away from the League to provide a basis for a watch tower. Each fighter pair had a freighter to watch, and with three fast attack freighters, that made 9 vessels in system to cause problems, not to mention the few Gallofree ships arriving in a few minutes.

Long range reports had given that the local militia was scanning all ships coming in, and it would be stopping to search anything making its way to the planet below, so the freighters were going to have to make a run. As soon as the ships made it into real space, a mission timer went up for a 7 minute count down. They had to get as close as they could to the planet before the surplus TIE fighters launched. The freighter Jared was watching was one of the Corellian YT-2400s that had been used for years by the Underground.

"Dark Star to escort. See that timer? We can take a few hits but…" Jared nodded as he heard that over the comms.

"We know, not good if it gets jostled too much." Surplus hyperfuel and all. The other fighter with Jared's escort was picking up speed as the timer was counting down. Fighters were going to be all over them faster than they could prepare for.



A simple Underground mission. Freighters and fighter escorts making their way to the planet of Javin to set up a listening outpost and strike location on passing shipments from the Core to enemies in the Outer Rim. A few freighters are armed with weans and set up to rush to the surface, a few others are coming in later on to be ships with supplies. Members of the Rimward Trade League are to fly into the system and get the freighters to ground. From there? Disperse into the cities and set up safe houses, but that's for another day.

The local warlord is not going to make getting to the planet easy.

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Jared Starchaser

This was more like it. If her hands were still organic, they'd be itching with excitement and restlessness. A real Underground operation that would make a difference. The Sith seemed to have refocused their attention on the Stygian Caldera, which bought the Underground a little more time, which meant the League also had more time. As much as the Underground could buy them, anyway, between this Javin op and the one she'd been coordinating behind the scenes with Underground agents she trusted.

Let the Alliance and Mandalorians spout off moral platitudes and justifications. Wars were messy, nasty business, and only fools rushed into them. Ironically, here she was, rushing into a war of her own. But she'd never been good at making practical decisions. Always went with her instincts and her gut feeling, which some had said was her sensitivity to the Force.

She'd never really agreed with that; honestly more like she knew what was right and what was wrong. And bullies were wrong. Authoritarians were wrong. And she would stick it them whenever she had the chance.

In this case, it was Javin. Secure the hyperlane. Disrupt any further expansion along the trade lanes. Prepare for any expansion and launch guerilla operations.

But now- she had to focus. She dropped out of hyperspace in the Requiem and set the clock: seven minutes to get as close to the surface as possible before the old TIEs went to intercept. The clouds turned to streaks, then to stars as the freighter hurtled into realspace.

She pushed the throttle all the way forward.

"I'm on your seven, Starchaser," Aeshi said, glancing ahead at the two fighter escorts. "No fighters for me, I think- at least not for now. I can tangle with the TIEs easy-peasy."

 

[Jared Starchaser]

Jared missed being in the cockpit. He had done so much time on the Rim out hunting relics and the history. A good old mission to help deliver and escort? As much as many people got bummed out by escort missions, but maybe it was something new for Jared, to actually not need the glory of the fight. But this was going to be something where he was going to have to keep fighting the TIEs in a fighter inspired by one his father had flown when he was in active service, pre-Galactic Alliance.

The Underground, like the OPA and the League were not the warriors that the Alliance or the Republic were, but they had their skills. His father had prepped it back to what his old one was, more shields, more engines, less missiles, but if they were going against TIEs? Then he would only need the lasers.

Jared heard the voice come over the comms. Ash Tillian. Good. He could work with that.

"Roger that Req." Yeah, shortening the name to something that sounded like wreck could make other pilots anxious, but the pairs they had here? Not so much. "We've got your bow. Cuan and I can get a bit of a shield trio with you."

His father's longtime wingman was flying his X-Wing as per usual and was actually gaining some speed on Jared as the two pushed together. White knuckle wasn't quite what they were doing, actually a bit more calm than that. Jared was excited for the fight to come but not in a I-need-combat type of way.

"Dont know how many TIEs will be coming at us." Jared stated.

<<Enough for us to all get a fair share, I bet.>> Replied the Sullusant

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Jared Starchaser

"Roger that, Starchaser- I'll move my formation in behind you." While it was somewhat galling to be behind starfighters, when she was pretty sure she could outrun anything short of a dedicated interceptor, it at least made some more sense that way. It would add some additional buffers to the transports behind her, which while flown by valiant and dedicated Underground pilots, lacked the finesse and customization of the Requiem. Besides, most light freighters didn't have a light turbolaser turret on the bow.

She glanced over at the sensors, studying them. "Long range sensors are picking up a swarm of TIE emissions rising from the surface, so they definitely see us."

Aeshi reached over with one hand and flipped a switch, redirecting weapons power to the forward shield. "Redirecting to forward deflectors. Let me know if you boys need any extra firepower."

Her eyes stared ahead at the planet in the distance, glowing with the reflected sunlight from the atmosphere, searching for the first growing dots that indicated the arrival of the enemy fighters.

 

[Jared Starchaser]

Preybirds were a fun ship. They were better than a TIE, that was for sure. And Jared had flown enough of them back when he was on Csillia. Clawcrafts and TIE Advanced. It didn't blend well with his devil-may-care attitude and Rebel leanings. A pirate vessel, the Preybird, it was more of a statement than say an X-Wing or other Rebel craft.

"We'll take point. Gotta make the show look good." And hope that the TIEs were attracted to the fact that there was a Starchaser and a Tillian in the same little running group. They weren't exactly being shy on the names and ships. But none of the Underground flights really were.

"Just have to keep their attention." Jared responded about the report of them launching.

<<Let them close into range. When their heavy hitters show up, take them Requium>> Suggested Cuan. The average eyeball variants would be taken down by the X-Wing and Preybird quite easily.

As the TIEs keptcoming, Jared kept watching. Waiting. Counting down.

His hand on the stick, finger on the trigger. He could all but hear the screams of the engines…And when they got close? He opened fire and pushed the throttle, dancing the fighter towards the planet.

Aeshi Tillian

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Jared Starchaser

"You got it, Cuan, running tail end heavy guns, got you covered." She tightened the straps slightly on her safety harness and adjusted the vacsuit, just in case. Better safe than sorry. But with the Requiem, she wasn't too worried. The ship could take hits like a rancor and, despite its small size, hit harder than one too.

One hand rested on the targeting computer, watching the small dots grow larger and larger. She flipped the cap off the turbolaser trigger and rested on hand lightly on the controls, while the others maneuvered the ship far enough behind the two fighters to not get in the way, but still close enough to give them effective cover.

The fighters' laser cannons were faster than the turbolaser, and the blasters were... possible, at least. She put those on automatic, switching them to an Underground frequency identifying the ships ahead of her and the convoy ahead of her as friendlies, while the TIEs were hostile.

The engines purred under her hands, slowed down dramatically to keep behind the fighters, so she rerouted part of the extra power to the shields. Ahead of her, Jared and Cuann opened fire on the approaching fighters.

Aeshi switched both hands back to the throttle and controls, slipping and ducking through the incoming storm as the three blaster cannons opened fire on the TIEs, spitting blaster bolts at high speeds toward the unshielded fighters.