The Battle of Bakura (Rogues, Shadows)

[Milivikal k'Vik]

The briefing room was mostly empty, with the exception of the few squadron members who were going to fly this mission: Hunk, Biff, Tarn. Eluna was missing. She was normally punctual.

“Right.” Milivikal said.

“To begin I’d like to remind everyone that this is a reconnaissance mission. We’ll all be short either a torpedo launcher or a missile launcher. We need to fly quietly. Stay off full thrust and keep the targeting systems off as long as possible. I’ve already arranged the retreat route to be programmed into the hyper-drives. It’s a four-jump route, and if you find trouble, jump. We’re running recon, not gunning for a fight.” She explained, and cued the holoprojector, showing the Bakura system and where they would be deployed. It was much looser than the normal combat spread.

“We’re each carrying different sensor packages. Our objective is to sniff for evidence of Imperial activity based in the Bakura system. This will allow the fleet commanders to assemble a hit and fade fleet to dissuade further Imperial ‘tax collection’ in this area.”

“Any questions?”

[Tarn Ardsul]

Tarn shook his head, his lips curling downwards into a dismissive frown. It was a simple mission as long as there weren't any hostiles ... and if Hunk would be sober. Things would be fine ...

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna sprinted down the corridor, causing various crew members to move out of the way or dive altogether. In transit, she fumbled with the familiar orange coveralls, securing them over her shorts and crew tee. She slowed to a walk, stepping through the meeting room door in time to work the final few clasps that held the coveralls in place at the neck. Shaking her hair free of the neckline, Eluna looked her teammates over and sat near to the door.

[Tannis V'larr]

Tannis took his seat as he always did, datapad on the fold-out desk to take notes.

Grisham rose stiffly from his chair and tucked the headache meds into his breast pocket. His expression was one of strained patience as he turned to address his squadron.

"Captain Vahlshalyn informs me that we've been experiencing some difficulties with the targeting systems," he said with the air of a tolerant parent speaking to his ill-behaved children. "Furthermore, I hear that several of you have taken it upon yourselves to try to correct the errors from the inside out. Setting aside for a moment the fact that your fighters are not your personal shop projects, can you please pay attention to the flight clock? We have a mission to fly, for Force's sake!"

Tannis, like the other pilots, merely endured this additional tirade. Grisham was still trying to find his feet as the squadron commander. Even his former position as a flight instructor at the Imperial Academy on Balmorra hadn't prepared him for this level of gasconade.

Though, Tannis ruminated, running simulations and droid diagnostics hardly constituted taking a ship apart.

"Now, if that's settled," Grisham continued, "we've got some babysitting to do. Ambassador Shirov is leading a relief envoy to Bakura, including meds, supplies, and troops, to aid local civilians, improve relations, and advance Imperial interests in this sector. It's all the same to us. There are two Lambda-class shuttles in the hangar loaded to the gills. Just see 'em to the planet and head back to the barn. It's that simple, folks."

[Biff Dronsom]

Having heard Eluna thundering down the corridor to the meeting room, Biff was hard pressed to stop himself smirking. The desire to break into a grin quickly evaporated, however, when his attention returned to the Commander – stony faced as ever. He looked between the others present, all more experienced than he was, then shook his head. “No, ma'am.”

[Bette Davis]

Sounded too simple. "Are all wings going?" Bette half-heartedly raised her hand in the middle of her sentance.

Grisham nodded, "The entire squadron - you are not to broach the atmosphere under any circumstances. The Bakurans have been very clear about that."

She grunted acknowledgement, and the briefing ended. Grabbing her flight helmet, Davis walked down the passage towards the hangar bay, lingering behind the bulk of the pilots.

[Aliya Vahlshalynn]

Aliya was double-checking her gear when she noticed that Shooter was dawdling behind. Her Squad Leader had been on edge as of late, pain medicine aside.

She slowed down her steps until she was side by side with Bette. "You okay?" she asked quietly. "Or is Grish just making ya grumbly as usual?"

[Zachariah Jak'el]

Zak pushed off the wall and was one of the first out of the meeting room. His long legs propelled him briskly down the hallway and back into the docking bay. He zipped his flight suit up all the way to his chin as he walked. His helmet was slipped off it's peg on the wall and slipped under his arm. He glanced over his shoulder to see a few of his squadron falling behind of the rest of the group, most notably Davis and Vahlshalynn. Females, always compelled to chat with each other. He respected Davis and her fighting abilities, but he just didn't think that females were the right material for military work.

He shrugged his shoulders and continued across the docking bay. He reached his ship and circled around it, making sure it was still in one peice and making sure the techies had done their job right. Satisfied with what he saw he climbed up the awaiting ladder and plopped into the cockpit of his TIE. He powered his ship up and slipped his helmet on. He secured it and listened to the seal lock. He was ready to go.

"This is Shadow Eight checking Comm Systems. Do you read me Command?", "This is Command, we read you loud and clear Shadow Eight. Prepare your ship for flight. Command out."

[Bette Davis]

"I dunno. I have a bad feeling about this mission." Bette rubbed her hand across her forehead, and then grinned and slapped Chipper on the butt. "Get to your fighter, Captain! We are on a schedule here! Do not make me repeat myself!"

Aliya jumped, and then darted down the hall towards the hangar. Bette covered up her grin as Grisham approached her from behind, ready to spar verbally with him if necessary. He only glanced at her before passing and entering the docking bay.

Bette grabbed her helmet from its spot on the wall, and climbed into the ManEater. "C'mon sweetie, time for a ride." She ran her hand along the hull before dropping inside the Defender.

[Hunk]

"A little fly and spy? Doesn't sound too bad. Let's go; the sooner we get out there the sooner we can be back in here, celebrating."

[i]"If we're quick enough," he thought, "I can still catch Zheera before her evening shift."

Hunk clapped Ardsul on the back. "Whad'ya say, Chief, ready for a little peeping on the Empire?"

[Bette Davis]

The mission was so boring Bette wondered if she could get away with taking a nap. Of course, not really, because Defenders didn't have auto-pilot except when they were in hyperspace, and she certainly wasn't going to jump anywhere.

Aliya, Tannis, and Zak formed up behind her as they followed the shuttle towards the neutral planet of Bakura.

[Tannis V'larr]

"Approaching convoy, please identify yourself."

"Bakura control, this is the Imperial Shuttle Iago bearing Ambassador Shirov and his envoy. We are transmitting our identification protocols."

Unlike his wingmates, Tannis didn't begrudge escort duty. It was part of the mechanism that kept the finely-tooled components of the Imperial military machine running. Procedure, order, protocol. It was as close to natural law as the service ever came.

Of course, it wasn't a terribly stimulating way to spend the afternoon, but Tannis had certain advantages over his human counterparts in that regard -- while his TIE Defender didn't have an active auto-pilot, he essentially did. Compartmental control was an integral portion in Sikarran mental training; Tannis knew precisely how much of his mind was needed to keep his fighter on-course and to answer his wing leader's routine position checks, leaving the rest of his faculties free for other pursuits. Already he'd given careful consideration to the report he planned to write on the new targeting system's deficiencies and fine-tuned the training drill he planned to suggest to Commander Grisham for their next round of maneuvers. And now he was thinking on a more personal project, the specs he'd been drawing up for the past few weeks, though with little hope of winning the attention of Sienar Fleet Systems -- the key, of course, was in minimizing the emissions from the radiator panels without sacrificing energy flow...

"Shuttle Iago, you are cleared for approach. We are transmitting the landing coordinates. Your escort fighters are not to penetrate the exosphere."

"Acknowledged, Bakura. We are beginning our approach. Shadow Squadron, fall off to mark seven."

Tannis made the appropriate course adjustment without the slightest agitation to his train of thought. The twelve TIE Defenders slowly fell away from their protective formation around the two shuttles.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

k’Vik settled into the A-Wing’s snug seat. She shimmed her body a little, and then pulled the harness on. The helmet was draped over the control stick, and she pulled it over her head.

Helmet secured, she lowered the fighter’s canopy. Milivikal recited the pre-flight checklist like a sacred prayer she said every day. Her hands moved nearly automatically. Her eyes looked for any discrepancies while she turned on and off various bits of equipments. Then she began the startup sequence. Most Alliance fighters had extremely short startup sequences, to the tune of 45 seconds. Hers was no exception, but there was no need when they were not scrambling.

First she turned on the main generator. A subtle, nearly imperceptible hum emitted from behind the cockpit. Mili slowly directed power to the different systems. The engines and repulsors were given enough to warm up, followed by the shields. Milivikal did not send any power to the weapon systems, knowing that even the base charged output would ruin readings from the passive sensor arrays the Rogues were carrying. Everything flicked green. As an indicator of readiness to the ground crew, the commander turned on the A-Wing’s running lights. Fortunately, the crew had finished its prep ten minutes prior. She eased more power to the repulsors, and felt the small fighter lift off the flight deck. A satisfying thunk sounded into the cockpit as the A-Wing’s landing struts retracted into the craft’s hull. It wobbled gently.

“Remember to keep weapon systems off and uncharged.” She reminded. “Flight command, this is Commander k’Vik requesting clearance for departure.”

“Command to Rogues, you’re green for launch. Find some good ion trails.”

“Thank you command. k’Vik out.”

The Novaladex Event Horizon engines began to whine while she eased the craft into space. The X-Wings that made up most of the rest of the squad followed.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna had made her way to her Y-wing, reading the mission specs as she ran. Her knack for multitasking had always been a good source of locker-room humor among the other pilots, who sometimes called her Lotsa Luna, for seemingly being able to get lots of stuff taken care of at the same time.

It was a little funny, but Eluna was always somewhere between the cold practicality of her true nature and the feelings of self conciousness she harbored for being what she was.

Dodging a row of flight crewers, she leapt onto the third rung of the ladder leading into her cockpit. The mission profile she was late to hear was now already committed to her memory verbatim, and she was now stuck wondering just how much she'd stick out on this little snooper's expedition. She didn't have the push that Mili and some of the others had with their fast attack fighters, but what she lacked in raw speed, she made up for in payload.

In this case, a comprehensive sensor suite was loaded into her craft, replacing the guts of her bomb bay and delivery system, which lied in a hulk at one corner of the hangar.

If this wasn't further insult, Alliance brass had sidelined her bombardier, and replaced him in the hotseat with a spook from Intelligence. He obviously knew how the flight suit worked, which was a plus. She wouldn't bother asking if he was up to the challenge of running the passive sensor hub in her ship's belly. In addition to being able to run good reconnaissance of its own, the thing was supposed to network the sensor scans together, to maximize the net and keep overlap or gaps from messing up their screen.

"Commander Thals?"

He had a voice. She cocked an eyebrow and slid her helmet on.

"Cut the foreplay. I'm Eluna. This is my ship. Don't touch anything that the suits didn't make me put on it, and we'll have a good flight."

That seemed to shut him up, to which Eluna smiled as she blazed through her pre-flights.

"Rogue Leader, this is Rogue Five. I'm in your wash so don't thump the throttle."

[Biff Dronsom]

There was something unnerving about recon missions. When it came to straight up dogfights, at least you knew what you were in for, that was Biff's way of thinking. You pushed to full throttle, let loose a barrage of shots and barrel-rolled your way to victory. Stealth wasn't something he had been trained for, and although the Commander wasn't asking them to do anything particularly tasking, he couldn't help but feel nervous.

His hands began to tremble a little as he prepped his X-Wing for take off. Frowning, he took a deep breath and steeled himself – unwilling to become overcome by fear. He found that looking over the controls for the newly installed sensor package helped take his mind off things.

The others took off, and he followed in their wake. “Rogue Eleven, out of the nest.”

[Bette Davis]

"Heading to mark seven, roger that Command." Bette tightened her hands on the flight stick, peeling away towards the low orbit they would assume for only a few minutes. Then it was back to the Termagant. Grisham was taking six TIEs in one direction, she had the other five with her.

The only reason was it looked prettier when they peeled off in two groups. There was no real reason for the entire squadron to be out on frelling escort-babysitting-mindless-cadet duty. The Empire was sending Bakura a message. We can be powerful allies. Or a dangerous enemy.

"Maniac, are you humming?" She clicked the comm twice to get Shadow Twelve's attention. "There's no humming in the Imperial Navy, boy!"

The six Defenders screamed through space, well away from the atmosphere of the planet. After a few more minutes they would veer away and head for home.

[Ulrhik Godsend]

Ulrhik rested his helmet against the back of his seat. Things had cooled down quite a bit since Endor. Well, cooled down to the point where he had to constantly use simulators to keep his head in the game. TIEs did not allow for any slack, everything banked on skill. The average TIE fighter though, the TIE defenders on the other hand. After flying in TIEs, the defender's capabilities were something Ulrhik knew not to take for granted. He still strived to maintain the same attitude though, aggressive vigilance to endure the trials he might face in space. So he sat up a little more as he scanned the emptiness of space again, his defender in the rear of the formation and farthest out from the front. They were peeling out a distance and were to return soon enough. How trivial.

He blinked in time to notice something move in his peripheral. Like the Dragon as he was called, he felt his adrenaline pick up. Those weren't anything but what his gut instinct told him they were. They were out of immediate scanner range and he cued it on to see if even the passive radius picked up anything. It responded with a beep of failure.

"Shooter, this is Dragon, eye on my 10'."

He used the targeting computer to set up a ghost sight in the area he had seen the movement. It was in lower orbit and had just caught his sight for long enough to glimpse what shouldn't have been there. The ghost sights would appear on the other Shadows' HUDs, allowing them to focus on it as well. Maybe, just maybe, this meant something. Whether Bakura had thought to do something really, really dumb or the Rebels, or even pirates had reared their head, Godsend didn't care for politics and he by now he just wanted to see someone else go up in a vacuum.