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Thread: Formation

  1. #41
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    Once pre-flight checks were done Bette settled into the cockpit of Maneater, her TIE Defender, and pulled on her crashwebbing. Securing her helmet she linked into the comm, setting it to voice activation.

    ”This is going to be a bumpy transit, Shadows, stay sharp.” She set the navicomp for a tandem jump, effectively slaving the squadrons’ hyperdrives to her command.

    The squadron streamed out of the Admonisher, separating into wings and shooting away from Ord Trasi. Cyer stuck by Bette’s side, maintaining proper wingman position.

    Once they had reached safe distance, Bette started the countdown and the Shadows winked out of the system.

  2. #42
    There was always the giddy/sickening feeling the moment the helmet went on. You felt dampened and cut off from the outside. The only things you could hear were the steady positive pressure of the rebreather and the pulsing thump of blood pushing in your ears. Railla keyed up the preflight sequence, feeling her grav couch vibrate as the ion power plant spooled up. She quickly cycled through systems checks - green green green. Weapons online. Shield generator ready. Sublight and Hyperdrive ready. As she waited for her turn to deploy on the rack, Railla pivoted her thrust nozzles and flaps to their extent, ensuring the range of motion she expected. A loud clacking sound timed with a juddering from above as Railla watched Commander Davis's Defender deploy from the rack and push ahead on ion drive.

    The Officer of the Deck signaled from down below. Her turn now.

    "SK-4202, now deploying."

    The green light flashed on her HUD, and a split second of weightlessness signaled the release from the rack. Railla pushed the throttle ahead gently, and sailed through the atmospheric shielding. As the rest of Shadow Squadron formed up on the leader, Railla licked her lips to moisten them against the dry recycled air. A part of her wanted ten minutes of open sky with her new fighter to push everything to the limit. No, a more sober thought overrode her desire. You have your training and your discipline. Follow them.

    "I'm on your wing, Shadow Leader. Standing by."

    With the hyperdrive coordinates locked for the squadron, the fighters began to jump in sequence. In a snap, they were gone.
    Last edited by Railla Cyer; May 14th, 2019 at 11:09:18 PM.

  3. #43
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    Outside of the Mandalore System

    Twelve TIE Defenders reverted to realspace, taking a moment to orient themselves in their new spacial position. Bette spoke over the comm as they headed toward the border with the neutral region.

    "Sensors on full, we want to find any ships in the area. We don't have sensor data on our raiders but we have an eyewitness so we're going to have to get a visual. That clear?"

    A round of affirmatives came through the comm, and Bette ordered a spread formation, splitting into pairs as they followed along the border of Mandalorian space.

    yo ho yo ho a pilot's life for me

  4. #44
    The pace of Railla's breathing had picked up the moment they dropped into realspace. This was the smallest ship she'd ever experienced a hyperjump in. The simulations could only partially mirror the weird sensation of your stomach flipping over your toes. A moment later, it was gone. Railla redoubled her grip on the yoke, shimmying slightly on her gravity couch to shake any lingering butterflies. When the order came for formation shift, she was on it, gliding ahead of Shooter at 02 low. That gave Railla tip of the spear line of sight to make the ID, and allowed Shadow Leader a perfect reactive position if needed.

    "Setting sensor screen to maximum."

    The resource allocation minimized distribution to shields and weapons, while keeping engines hot. That should buy enough time to deal with any problems when and if they showed up.

  5. #45
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    "Shadow Leader I got something, sending coordinates. Looks like a task group of some kind." Jackal's voice came over the comm.

    Shadows Nine and Ten were the furthest from her, and Bette painted their sighting onto her HUD. "Are they Mandalorian ships, or something else?"

    "Looks like Mandos, sir. Ma'am. Couple of frigates and support ships. Could be our raiders?"

    "Let's go find out. Shadows, form up on Nine and Ten, two wings so we can pincer if we need to." Bette clicked to just speak with Cyer. "Rails, I'm following you, so get us over there and tell me what you see."

  6. #46
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    "Affirmative."

    Pulling his yoke to the side, Zach angled his TIE/d out of the formation, and half the wing split up right behind him as he took point on the second group leaving Shooter and the newbie on the other.

    Reaching without looking he rubbed the little metal half-moon pendant that hung from his instrument panel; it's face long tarnished and worn by repeated touching.

    "Shiraya, if'n your listening ma'am. Things could get real dicey here. If you could, watch over me and my squadron. 'specially Shooter. She likes to get herself into trouble. Guide us all safely home. Amen."
    Zachariah "Jackal" Jak'el. Shadow Nine.

  7. #47
    "On vector, Shadow Leader. I have point."

    Railla pitched in full sublights, feeling the acceleration feather slightly in the cockpit. This far from stellar bodies, there wasn't much to visually mark time, save for the occasional passing of space dust. The seconds dragged far longer than they should on her chrono, leaving her with nothing but the hum of her twin ion engines and the sound of the rebreather in her ears.

    A handful of moments longer and Railla's sensor suite pinged to confirm distant contacts. Her breath quickened as she pored over the feed on her scopes.

    "It's..."

    A hesistation. She swallowed hard.

    "It's not them."

    Her cheeks burned, and Railla squeezed the yoke until her leather gloves creaked.

    "Negative copy, Shadow Leader. Target not confirmed."
    Last edited by Railla Cyer; May 21st, 2019 at 10:58:27 PM.

  8. #48
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    "Are you certain? We're still pretty far out."

    Bette accelerated, taking point from the other pilot. "Follow me, I'll get you close enough to read the freckles off the captain's ass. Shadows, I want you to swarm these Mando pricks, but do not fire unless fired upon. We're just doing a flyby."

    She switched to an open channel. "Attention Mandalorian ships, you have strayed into Imperial space. We will escort you back to your sector. Please power down your weapons or you will be met with deadly force."

    It was all bullshit, of course. The task group was on their own side of the border by about a klick, but her confidence over the comm could be enough to sow some confusion. In the meantime the Shadows were closing in on visual range, the outer lighting on the Mando frigates' hulls illuminating them in the black.

    Bette flew confidently into Mandalorian neutral space, Rails on her four, and rapidly closed in on the ships. Five of them, three frigate sized and two smaller support craft. Their transponders stopped transmitting, and the Mando ships began to move, spreading out into a defensible position as the twelve Defenders screamed toward them.

    "Looks like they want to play," Bette said over the comm. "Weapons lock only, do not fire until fired upon. And don't get yourselves killed, that's an order. Rails, are you positive these aren't our ships?"

  9. #49
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    As the Commander shot out ahead of the other ships, Zach pushed forward the throttle on his own TIE as he fought to catch up and set the example for the rest of his line. As the Mandalorian ships became more visible he could not help but feel like a sneaky Narglatch stalking through the swamp before stumbling on to a Zalaaca. They were out in the open now, the brush left behind, and all they had left against the larger predator was to roar defiantly and hope to scare the other away; or goad it into combat. Zach had spent enough time around the Gungan swamps to know that the Zalaaca usually came out on top of that confrontation.

    This felt like suicide, but it was hard not to get swept up in Shooter's bravado.

    Pulling his yoke gently to the side he increased the width between his column and the other. There were larger ships in the Mandalorian group and a wider pinch would be needed hit them while also decreasing the chance that one turbolaser round takes out half the squadron. The blips on his radar confirmed that the others were splaying out with him. Cycling his target lock through the ships he settled on the closest of the frigates. The smaller support craft were much less of an immediate threat. That was like saying the biggest of a pride of Tusk Cats were the most dangerous. They are all dangerous.

    They were looking at a lot of firepower and armor to deal with.

    "Ready and waiting."

  10. #50
    "Come on Railla, you're better than that." She chastised herself with the line closed, shaking her head.

    Even if that meant getting too close for comfort, they couldn't leave it to instruments alone. She pushed her throttle to match Bette's acceleration, spearheading towards the frontier with eyes up. Once her speed was locked, her hand hovered over the systems allocation controls, ready at a moment's notice to transfer power to engines and weapons.

    The Mandalorian ships were beginning to adjust course for a combat formation. Even if they didn't ID, the Mandos might end up being a problem anways. As they grew in her canopy, Railla looked for any familiar sign. These ships weren't Corellian. More than that, the distinctive hammer-prow of the ship she'd seen wasn't here.

    "Visual ID is also negative, Shadow Leader." Railla replied crisply, tightening a hand on the stick. "Orders?"

  11. #51
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    Well, that’s disappointing.

    Bette didn’t waver, leading the Shadows directly at the Mandalorians. “Continue the flyby. If they blink go for disabling shots only. Otherwise let’s swing wide and get back to our side of the border.”

  12. #52
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    It was a tense moment as they swung around the Mandalorian fleet, his eyes never leaving the viewport for a moment. Eyes locked. Ready for something. Anything. Movement. Weapons firing. Klaxons sounding in his ears. Bette screaming commands over the comms. That abrupt cutoff and static blast you get when a wingmate explodes mid-sentence.

    But. Nothing.

    They whistled past, so close he could see the silhouettes of humanoids in the viewports of the Mandalorian ships. It wasn't until they started coming around the other side that he finally allowed himself to release the breath he'd been holding in. They weren't out of the Zalaaca den just yet, but they could see daylight from here and heck was it warm and inviting.

  13. #53
    The moment they passed the frigates, Railla exhaled her pent-up breath.

    It was relief short-lived. Her instruments flashed angrily.

    "Shadow Leader, six marks at ten ahead, coming out of the moon's Lagrangean point!"

    Her hands tightened again at her stick, and Railla could feel the gentle sway of the defender's responsive controls.

    "Mandalorian Fang fighters. They're accelerating to attack speed."

  14. #54
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    “I see them. Wings One and Two, be ready to engage the Fangs. Wing Three I need you on those capital ships - once we’ve exchanged fire with the fighters go for their offensive hard points and engines. Do not take unnecessary risks.” Bette had to speak quickly as the Fangs were rapidly closing in.

    Leading Wing One while Two split from both sides of their existing pincer formation to swarm around to the backside of the enemy fighters, Bette tightened her hands on the yoke. The Fangs were small and nimble but they were no match for the sheer speed of the Defenders. Their advance on the Imperial starfighters was rapidly becoming a game of chicken as neither side seemed willing to take the first shot.

    The Mandos blinked first.

    Blue laser fire lanced out from the leading Fang and Bette grinned. “Weapons free. Fire at will.”

    The Shadows, their targets already picked as they had closed the distance, opened fire.

  15. #55
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    Steady. Steady. Steady...

    Sensors screamed warnings of incoming fire long before his eyes could even see the pinpricks of blue energy lancing out from the Mandalorian Fang Fighters. The moment that sound hit his ears he threw his yoke so hard in the opposite direction that his wrist screamed vibrating agony. Immediately his TIE/d turned upwards and rolled to it's side, spinning like a top as he oriented himself blindly with only the large blips on his sensors to guide him. The acceleration pushed him back into his seat, his eyes fighting to stay open against the pull, until he came out the other end facing straight at the frigates. Even as he fell forward into his crash webbing he could feel the dizziness trying to set in, the nausea of a mind lost in space. He couldn't give it more than a second of respite before he punched that accelerator again.

    Zach wasn't about to give those frigates any time to shoot. The distance was closing fast, and by the time they finally started firing he was already on top of them. One panic volley sailed over their heads. The Shadows knew to dodge just enough to miss. No sense if giving away the full extent of your mobility.

    "Wing three, scatter... now!"

    Anticipating the next turbolaser volley, the Defenders split apart, leaving the space between them empty for the massive energy beams to pass through.

    "Within firing range. Group up and focus fire on those turbolaser batteries. Follow my lead."

    Pulling back the yoke, he angled his Defender up from below to face the batteries directly, and rammed his finger against the trigger as hard as he could. For the moment all he could hear was the scream of TIE engines and the Reereeereeree of quad-linked SFS L-s9.3 laser cannons. Eight more streams of plasma joined his. The shields stood about as much chance as a Dukduk beetle in a hurricane. As soon as an explosion billowed out into space they turned their fire on the edge of the next battery on their trajectory and smoked that one too before they came around the side of the frigate and circled around the top; flying too close for them to do much of anything.

    "Stick to 'em like mud. Loop around the tail and slingshot around the port side. Let's hit those other cannons 'fore he blow these engines out like birthday candles."

  16. #56
    Railla kept pace with Shadow Leader, dumping her throttle to close the distance on the fang fighters. The Mandalorian ships began to rapidly spin on their axis as they fired, creating a volumetric field of fire to give them the best chance at landing a shot on target. Railla remembered her simulator training, keying her deflectors augment front. But a TIE pilot knew the best defense was often a good offense. She squeezed the trigger on her four linked laser cannons, similarly filling the sky for her unshielded enemy. As she dove down on a pair of fangs to the point she could nearly see the pilots in their cockpits, Ensign Cyer saw blaster shots splash on one of the Mandalorians' wings, blossoming into a wreath of carbon scoring.

    There wasn't any time to dwell on the fact since she was rocketing ahead at full throttle. Railla grit her teeth and wrenched her fighter into a Koiogran turn, amazed at how quickly her Defender dampened the inertial shift. Her engines spooled half a second, then screamed in pursuit of the fighters she had previously overshot. With blood in the water, Railla stayed firmly on the wounded ship, burning space around it as she pursued.

  17. #57
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    "Rails, since you've only flown in sims, just follow me and pick off what ..." Bette's voice trailed off as the green pilot shot off after a pair of Fangs. "...what I leave behind." She clicked off the comm.

    "Fuck!" Bette yanked the yoke around, spinning her Defender to follow Ensign Cyer and laying on the trigger liberally, scoring a glancing shot off a Fang that the ensign was about to fly past. As Rails executed a turn to come up behind the Mandos, Bette split neg-X pos-Y, coming up and around to fall in beside her wingman.

    She toggled the comm. "Going somewhere, Ensign?" she said dryly. "Generally you want to stick with your wingman if you can. You know. Take these two out, I'll swing wide to clean up any leftovers."

  18. #58
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    "This frigate has lateral hardpoints, stay on top and bottom and we'll be fine. Incoming fire!"

    Jerking his yoke to the side, Zach took his wingmates warning to heart and pulled to the side just as heavy turbolaser rounds skimmed over the top of the frigate so close it rippled it's shields and scattered his sensors for a moment. Looking across the bow of the frigate he could see another one had lined up to fire across the hull of it's brother to account for it's blindspots.

    "Wing 3, status?"

    "Green."

    "Green."

    "I lost a wing. I'm alright."

    "Let's get those engines."

    Rotating around the frigate from it's top to it's bottom, Zach lead the charge away from the belly, heading straight downward so that they would continue to avoid the limited range of the remaining turbolasers. It was rotating above them, trying to get that range, and they moved in kind until they were just far enough away to pull back up for a steep climb, angling for those engine cones. Pot shots from the other frigates flew by, but they clearly had never tried to shoot down TIE/D's before. Each time he saw the telltale wink of incoming plasma they hit the throttle harder and sped away.

    "Torpedoes cycle on mark... mark!" One after the other each ship fired a proton torpedo, the first hit the shields hard, wobbling the energy field before the second blew it completely out of place and the third connected with the engine cones, blasting them open for the forth to fly right into the cracked surface, causing a bright explosion that the TIE's skimmed the edges of, using the plume of fire and venting atmo to hide their movements as they circled around and headed for the second frigate, that was maneuvering to cover the first. The third frigate was no where to be seen. Risking his life as incoming energy beams lanced through the inky void, Zach checked his sensors for the missing frigate.

    "Shadow Leader, one of the frigates has broken off and is heading to assist the starfighters."

  19. #59
    Quote Originally Posted by Bette Davis View Post
    "Going somewhere, Ensign?" she said dryly. "Generally you want to stick with your wingman if you can. You know. Take these two out, I'll swing wide to clean up any leftovers."
    As much as Railla felt properly chastized for a moment of impetuous instinct, she still couldn't help the smile on her face hidden by her helmet. This kind of speed and vector changing agility felt good. No, good was too sterile. Amazing. The simulations couldn't quite approximate that rush.

    "Copy, Shadow Leader."

    The fangs realized she'd jumped them. To their credit, the Mandalorians cut sharply in opposing directions, forcing Railla to make a choice. An informed choice, as the Ensign caught the ghost edges of Bette's contrails in the stellar dust, hooking to three point one. Railla quickly snapped into pursuit of the undamaged fighter turning hard port. It left her back open to the damaged fang if it hooked into a tallon roll, but Bette was in a great position to hunt it if it did.

    Railla poured on her speed, spitting linked cannon fire at the retreating fighter's narrow profile. The mandalorian danced expertly, making it a difficult shot to take. Still, when you're at the enemy's back, you're usually not taking shots. Railla took the opportunity to dial her targeting computer into a locking sequence.

  20. #60
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    Railla Cyer seemed to be getting the hang of her Defender, hooking around to follow one of the Fangs as they split up, leaving one for Bette. It was already damaged, and gutsy enough to roll in to try to catch Rails from behind.

    Shooter dispatched it quickly, rolling Maneater to follow the ensign as comms chatter filled her cockpit.

    "Shadow Leader, one of the frigates has broken off and is heading to assist the starfighters."

    "That's our cue, one last strafing run and we're bugging out." Bette kept following Rails, giving her a chance to take out the Fang she was hunting before pulling the plug.

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