Ambush at Arda II

[Binary the Great]

Leutenant Pascale sighed softly inside her pressurized helm. She was tired of pulling patrol after patrol, but she did know how important the missions were. Why, she thought to herself as she began the course correction for the next waypoint, do I have to be one of the seven pilots certified for the phantoms?

The pilot glanced towards the sensor display and noticed that the passive scannes had yet to pick up anything beside her wingmate. "Still no contacts," she breathed to herself without keying up the mike. Pascale gave another quick check of her readouts, and frowned as she noted the growing need for a contact or a hypertrip back to their mobile recovery vehicle.

[Marcus Starkiller]

After his briefing with General McNeil, General Starkiller called all main personel to the briefing room.

Marcus: Alright people, we have another mission on our hands. Since Rogue Squadron is busy doing what they do, it has fallen upon us. General McNeil has assigned us to escort a supply convoy. The Pride leaves orbit in and hour.

[Nik Vecto]

A few groans escaped from the assembled pilots and crew. "I thought that we just got out of doing escort duty!", a young tiger named Kraig Stox said. Then Master Vecto's voice chimed in. "Escort is a vital part of any squadron's mission, Mr.Stox.... Even in our own flight runs, if we did not escort and protect the Pride, it would not be here to give us a home." Stox looked downward. "Please continue, General Starkiller."

[Marcus Starkiller]

Marcus: Thank you Master Vecto. As I was saying, there have been raids on New Republic supply convoys as of late. The most notable were the hijackings of medical supplies and other highly needed goods. Rumor has it that the pirate group or groups are operating from a captured Dominator-class Star Destroyer. They are also rumored to have an ace fighter pilot who has claimed the lives of over a dozen New Republic pilots. All we know about this killer is that they use the callsign 'Breaker Nine', and that they could possibly even outfight and outfly Rogue Squadron, but like I said, the Rogues aren't available.

[Nik Vecto]

Another pilot piped up. "We can handle anything, General.... We'll be overkill, as it is!"
Nik looked at him, but didn't speak. "No pirate has ever defeated Raptor Squadron, and they never will! Besides, we have two Jedi!"

[Marcus Starkiller]

Marcus: Actually, three Jedi. people keep forgeting about my wife. Anyway, we still need to watch it if our convoy is attacked. Even with Jedi, we will still have a fight on our hands.

[Binary the Great]

(( Yaknow, that's all well and good, but you're several hours too late for that kind of RP at best, several days at worst. ^__^ Just FYI ))

[Marcus Starkiller]

?

[Binary the Great]

(( Breifing your troops, Marcus, would not happen right before you and your convoy exit hyperspace to make course corrections. ))

[Nik Vecto]

Okay, people, how about this.... I delete all posts but the first one, and we start over? Whadd'ya say?

[Marcus Starkiller]

ooc: actually i editted my first post so as not to have the ship even leaving the planet yet.

[Binary the Great]

(( I realized that, to which that would make the events you and Nik did belonging in the first thread. This one is for the actual ambush. ))

[Marcus Starkiller]

ooc: opps. Well, we should just get on with it.

here is the stats for the convoy and escorts:

Convoy:
2 MC10 Deep Water-class Light Star Freighters
SeaStar
Gem

1 A-Z-Z-3-class Light Freighter
Calamarian Queen

1 Simiyiar-class Light Freighter
Ackbar's Honor

1 Sprint-class Rescue Craft
New Holstice

1 Accumulator-class Transport
Hope of the New Republic

2 YVG Freighters
Swift Fox
Messanger

1 CEC Vagabond
Fixer



Escorts:
1 MC80a
Starkiller's Pride

2 EF60-class Corvettes
Rampage
Blaze

1 Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser
Republic's Savior

1 Venator Star Destroyer
Corellian Fire



ic: after entering hyperspace several hours ago, the Starkiller's Pride and the convoy arrive.

[Binary the Great]

Lt. Pascale frowned as she considered her options. "Ghost repotd gadget still clear. Near bingo, bugging..." She stopped as she noted another blip show up on her radar screen.

"Wraith calling Ghost. No music. Status, over?"

"Stand-by," she said firmly and grimly, looking out of the front of the cockpit. Then a grin formed upon her face. "Ghost reports. Contact! Tally one four; my foreward. Fence up and smoke signal. See you back at home plate, out."

At that instant, Lt. Pascale lit up the scene with an active sensor scan. Although doing so made her a shining target for the Alliance sensor network, it gathered all the data she needed. She further increased her electronic signal by transmitting the information to an ambush fleet that was in the nearby area just for this kind of operation.

In the classic words of Admiral Ackbar: "It's a trap!"

[Marcus Starkiller]

Tactical officer: General Starkiller, we're being scanned...

Marcus: By whom?

Tactical officer: Unknown...

Marcus: Firing control, send a warning shot across their bow.

Weapons officer: Aye Sir!

A bolt of energy lances from the Starkiller's Pride.

[Binary the Great]

Lt. Pascale watched as the threat indicator lit up. With a smile, though, she pulled on the controls, bringing her small V38 around and away from the fleet. "Ghost to Wraith, bugging out. Over," she said into the com and lined up for the first of several jumps back to the ship she was based at. She glanced back to confirm her wingmate was in the same position, and nodded once to herself at that fact. No more than ten seconds later, the pair of V38 TIE Phantoms rocketed into hyperspace away from the New Republic fleet.

[Marcus Starkiller]

Tactical officer: No use sending fighters after them General. They just disappeared.

[Binary the Great]

“Commodore Vasage,” some shouted out across the bridge of the Imperator mk. II Star Destroyer “Savage Winds” that served as the de facto flagship, “scouting party one-one-three-eight reports contacts!” The raccoon proceeded quietly from his usual position over to the pit from which the junior officer had called.

“Keep your tone down, Lieutenant,” Daniel chided. “This is a warship’s bridge, not some ball-court back home.” He paused a moment to let that sink in before continuing. “Forward the information to Captian Beale and tell him that it’s business as usual.” Without waiting for confirmation of his orders, the raccoon returned to his usual place on the bridge and sighed. “Business as usual,” he breathed quietly to himself, watching as a portion of his taskforce jumped for the ambush zone.

---

Captain Beale stood on the bridge of the Dominator-class Star Destroyer “Legacy’s Child” and sighed. Before him, through the transparasteel viewport, lay the swirl of hyperspace. He thought about the force being employed, a pair of Strike-class medium cruisers set for the left flank. Two Carracks and an older Dreadnought made up the right flank. His own line comprised of the Dominator Star Destroyer, a Victory mk. II Star Destroyer, and two Nebulon frigates for support. The entire starfighter force was made up of either Cygnus Xg-1 Starwing or Sienar TIE Advanced squadrons, numbering fourteen total: four of the gunboats and the remainder the fighters.

“Time minus thirty seconds to deceleration, Captain,” said his navigation officer, and Beale merely nodded. He knew that he needed not remind his crew how to function. Nor did he need to remind the fighter pilots to withdraw when they suffered any damage at all. This operation was just one more for the books.

---

Rajvinder Patel sighed softly as she glanced at the mission timer. The device indicated that she still had a good twenty seconds in the hyperspace jump before combat was to begin. The vixen gave a few critical systems the final once-over before the timer hit zero and she brought the fighter out of hyperspace.

Patel keyed up the comlink in her helm, her voice cold and calm, “Breaker Nine, all fighters report.” She was only half-listening to them for anything out of the ordinary. When everyone else reported green, she continued with the orders. “Breaker Nine. All fighters, if bent then bug out. Formation Victory. Happy hunting, over.”

She smiled for a moment, getting a better grip on the controls. One hell of a battle was due to be taking place real quick.

[Marcus Starkiller]

Tactical officer: We have inbound enemy vessels approaching fast! To many to count... looks like most are fighters.

General Starkiller: Scramble the fighters. You have the bridge. Ivanova, Vecto, you two are with me.

The Starkiller couple and the rest of Raptor Squadron emerges in the hangerbay and board their fighters.

[Binary the Great]

(( OOC: Just so all of you know, this battle does have plenty of NPC/minor roles on either side. Coordinate with the respective commander and you could find yourself in the heat of battle. ))

Captain Beale paced back and forth on the bridge as he awaited the first update in battlefield information. Information was key to warfare, and he wanted all that was available.

“Captain Beale,” spoke up his scanner technician after a few seconds, “we’re registering a standard array of civilian freighters and what looks to be a light escort. None of the vessels are drastically outside of projected locations. Numerous contacts have, however, appeared since the last scans were completed: the enemy has deployed fighters. The enemy’s flagship, Sir, is the ‘Starkiller’s Pride,’ one of the more elite vessels in our registry.”

He nodded, and thought for a few seconds. The tacticians had expected the fighter deployment, although he had not expected such a light force to accompany the fleet. The entire operation seemed too easy. Still, Beale decided that standard procedure was best.

“Communications, open a general broadcast to all ships in their fleet. Message is as follows: You have thirty seconds to transmit surrender codes or we will open fire. We will ignore all military surrender codes after this time passes. We are after your cargo, not your blood. Legacy’s Child out.”

The officer paused for a moment to think. Bombers needed targets, as they were not committed to any portion of the enemy fleet just yet. The other captains knew their roles quite well already, it was just a matter of the game being played properly.

“Direct squadrons Mu and Nu towards the star destroyer, Tau towards the dreadnought, and Rho against the corvettes. Inform Commander Patel that she is to ensure that their fighters do not destroy any of our vessels. After the thirty count, status is weapons free; confirmed hot.” Beale then let a slight smile creep onto his expressing. Turning away from the communications officer, he moved to a more central position on the bridge. “Gunnery,” he commanded calmly, “target their flagship, this Starkiller’s Pride, and open fire on my mark.”

---

“Breaker Nine, acknowledged, over,” Patel breathed into the comlink inside her helmet. She had just a few seconds the think over the fighter break-up for escorts.

“Breaker Nine, reporting. Alpha, Beta, Gamma squads, escort Mu squad. Delta, Epsilon, Zeta squads escort Nu. Eta, Theta, Iota squads escort Rho. Phi, Chi, Psi squads escort Tau. Omega will fly clean up with me. All TIEs fence up. Stand by for weapons free, over.”

Patel sighed and checked her scanner display; it showed a sizable number of buddies and they knew what they were doing. Still, she had an unusually ill feeling about this sortie. It was not something she could put her finger on, but the feeling something was amiss was ever present. It was a bad omen for the superstitious pilot. “Here goes nothing,” she breathed quietly to herself…