Allies: [member="Mazik Stazi"] @Danio Dil [member="Rekha Kaarde"] [member="Griet van Vliet"]
Opponents: [member="Cynthia Alucard"] [member="The Private"]
Objectives: Not sure at the moment. Destroy enemy fighters?
==================
Roth studied what he could of the scrambled sensors. Giant space-squid was clear enough, even by visual, as well as the flagships dwarfing the normal capital ships. Smaller explosions rocked through space as lasers arced from one ship to another and explosions ripped across the many ships. Nobody seemed to be in great shape, at least as far as he could tell. The place was practically riddled with debris and wreckage at this point. No matter how the battle went, it would take countless hours of work to get this place even closely transit-worthy again.
He had managed to get one last link from Therapy Command as their targeting computers synced. There was a squadron of fighters spread across the battle-space, and another one that had evaded the taxation-based squadron. In his head, he named them Theft Wing, as the Tillians were rather... philosophically disinclined to the conception of taxation. And if they were being honest, they were fairly ambivalent, if not mistrusting, of government in general. Although, that one fighter was slick, from what he could see on the displays. They were engaging the squadron of fighters spread out.
Another squadron had clashed with them, briefly, before returning to target the ORC bombers as they attacked the main ships. Roth adjusted his course and pushed the throttle forward to full speed, trying to gauge the trajectory of the fighters that he could now begin to see arcing their way through the ORC fighters, only now they had clouds of ORC craft on their tail. Roth could just make out two TIEs as they were blown to pieces by alliance fire. He gave the pilots a silent salute.
Pilots were pilots and starfighter jockeys were mostly the same kinds of people. And really, as far as Roth was concerned, they were all kindred. Different colors certainly and their missions often required them to kill each other, but when out of combat, Roth didn't think there was a fighter-pilot out there that he would be unwilling to grab a drink with and spend an evening carousing. So, all the pilots lost deserved that salute, regardless of the flags they flew under.
One of them peeled off to head towards the First Order fleet.
Third Flight, hang back back to cover our tails. Second and fourth flights, peel off to intercept any more FO snubs launched from their fleet. First Flight, with me.
Even as he began to think these thoughts, the pilots in the meld started breaking off the main formation, so that all were well on their way before he finished the orders. That was a good thing about flying with Jedi pilots in such a manner.
Roth frowned as he watched the squadron of TIEs grow larger. What were they doing? Why send a lone fighter, apparently in good shape, back to the fleet? It didn't make sense. Yet as he and his two wingmates closed into attack range, they allowed themselves to drift apart.
Angle front deflectors.
The commands came automatically to Roth's mind, not just orders, but simply the process of doing things. In the meld, the two were combined. He shifted the shield controls and half-watched the targeting computers. He could already see in his mind where they were going to be. Each moment within the Force stretched out to speeds slow enough to consider even the most relentlessly placed maneuvers. He didn't even look at the targeting computer for this part. It was only of use for missiles, compared to the Force.
Almost as if on cue, all three fighters opened fire on the TIEs harassing the bombers and Coalition fighters. They were good laser cannons, heavy enough for pilots to call them Shield-chewers. Enemy lasers began cutting their way and Roth rolled out of the way, cut the thrust to nothing for a moment, angled the nose a new direction, and then slammed the thrust again.
The small ship danced through these maneuvers and the laser arcs like a Nautolan opera dancer, before rocketing forward on its new trajectory. Roth waited for a moment to get a better feel for where the ships were going and then he opened fire again, targeting just ahead of the lead two fighters, aiming to at least clip them both in the barrage of fire.
There was another Jedi pilot out there. He could sense them, although he couldn't identify who they were, or what they were doing. Readings on friendly squadrons were scarce, at least for Coalition craft, but he had a hunch it was the one that looked nothing like anything else.
Targets engaged. He tried to send the thought to them, but he wasn't sure if it would reach them or not.
