The Merchant Fleet

[Kairon Rees]

The Quintessence fired lateral thrusters and spewed forth a torrent of laser fire. The broken pieces of TIE skipped off the shields without doing much harm. One of the unfortunate facts of space battles was that fighters zipped around with huge amount of momentum. Hitting them with lasers didn't change that fundamental fact, and pieces of fighter hull could do tremendous damage.

"Keep her steady!"

"That's the plan, they keep altering it!" Kairon replied to his nephew.

"Watch the towers!" Mai snarled.

"I'm looking at them," Kairon replied.

"I don't mean stare at them like a moron, fly around them!" she snapped back.

The long freighter banked to port to skirt a pair of laser turrets. One tracked them neatly and caught them near the fuel tanks, before an escorting X-Wing destroyed it. Another hit like that and the fuel tanks would go and take them all with it.

The B-wings followed in their wake as they pulled up, putting some distance between themselves and the hull of the cruiser, opening up the angle for the shot. An array of torpedoes streaked towards the section of the cruiser that was little more than frame and floating detritus. A brilliant flash of light heralded the first torpedo to hit the mark.

"She's going critical. Pull up! Pull up!" came the call over the battle network.

"[Calculating hyperspace jump!]" called the Sullustan.

"Any sign of the Grace?" Kairon shouted. Full power was supplied to the rear shields and engines and they accelerated directly aware from the cruiser. A series of bright flashes showed the reactor starting to go critical.

Another TIE fell into their path. Green lasers passed perilously close and into the distance ahead of them. Warning lights flashes as they were struck several times. There was a brilliant flash as the starboard nacelle was blown free. Kairon eased forward the level to send them into hyperspace just as another laser blast struck them. The console exploded.

 

[Malia Afredane]

Team 2
Getting the heck out of Dodge

Mal had left the systems in standby so it would not take long for her to get them back online, but there was a Stormtrooper in her pilot's seat trying to futz with the controls. A quick blaster shot, a toss down the ramp and Mal was back into Gracie's systems and ready to go. She shouted to Kaia and Rusty to get to turrets in case they had a firefight outside the hangar.

They lifted off the decking and she punched it into the openness of black space in front of her. The Wicked Grace rolled to the left as she cleared the hull, away from the engines before the reactors overloaded. It would be about a minute after the Grace left the second ship before explosions bloomed forth from the hull, but Mal was more focused on avoiding debris from the first ship and lingering TIE's.

[member='Rusty'] [member='Kaia Starchaser']

 

[Rusty]

Wicked Grace
Team 2

Rusty was sorely tempted to seal off the blast door behind him and eject the cupola. He could aim Gertrude a lot more quickly than the ponderous turret.

The Captain would flay him alive, though. She'd have to get creative, since he didn't have skin, but she'd find a way. He'd already made dramatic modifications to the ship, and she hadn't been happy about that, even if it did make the Wicked Grace a viable ship instead of a fireball waiting to happen.

Instead, he set his baby against the bulkhead and climbed behind the guns.

"Man, there are a lot of TIEs here for what was supposed to be a lightly guarded convoy. I think someone set us up."

No time to think too hard about it. Rusty began plugging away at the nimble fighters, cursing the slow traverse of the turret.

[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Kaia Starchaser"]

 

[Malia Afredane]

Team 2
Getting to hyperspace

"Have you met the Sith lately? This is lightly guarded for them."

She had run through heavier patrols landing on Balmorra to visit her mother. Granted, she wasn't shooting at the patrols on Bal, she just wanted to make it planetside in one piece.

Mal had laid in the coordinates, she was justing waiting for the hyperdrive to signal that it was ready. In the meantime, she was doing her best to get clear of the mess and head for open space. She didn't see the second ship explode, but it sure as heck showed up on the radar. There was a blip of distortion and interference and then it was gone. Both ships now destroyed, the TIEs were the only things left but soon they were forgotten as well when the cerulean lines of hyperspace surrounded them and the Wicked Grace vanished from the battle front.

[member="Rusty"]

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Kaia looked out. She got to the ship with relative ease and when they started taking off? She was on for the ride of her life. TIEs. They were something she was trained to build as a child. Breaking them was just as easy. She was going to be taking the guns to keep the TIEs from interfering with the plotting of the hyper jump. When the lines started distorting, the younger pilot smiled. That was a good feeling.

"Back to the rendezvous, right?"

She looked at Mal and Rusty, they had survived that trip.

[member="Rusty"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]