RPlog:Raxis Gets Shot Down

Bimmissari, a lone planet on the border of NR and Hutt space, bound to be a place of interest for the powers that be among the stars. The V2SD Nemesis and her crew were here for that specific reason, scouting for the Imperial fleet and surveying the area. They were making a detailed map of the area, and all points of interest and places where a trap may occur. The patrols and craft doing the survey were well underway, and it wasn't too long before they would be complete and departing. There were a couple of patrols near the behemoth, but would be returning to the ship as the last recon missions arrived back. The HIMS Nemesis stayed a good distance away from the planets in system, however, as they wanted to expedite their departure. Overseeing the patrols in a TIE MkII himself was Marshal Inrokana with 4 wingmen. His new position in the fleet prevented him from going most places without a significant escort. Flying in the upper atmosphere of the planet he was having some fun, and wanted to dip down into the clouds several hundred thousand feet below before they left.

However, sensing a wide open lane of space between the NR border with two other nonaffiliated factions left to themselves, the military minds of the New Republic had a similar plan. Sitting in his cockpit with the white and blue rushing haze of hyperspace rushing past his cockpit, 2nd Lieutenant Raxis L'ygr was engaged in a data-pad game of dejarik with his co-pilot Vee-Ten. Sighing as the alarm for exit began to beep, Raxis shut the datapad down and pulled his gloves on to tend to his X-Wing's controls. Tapping his exit on time, the familiar annoying fatigue came over him as both his X-Wing and his patrol wingmen came out of hyperspace. Tapping his comm on, he signalled to the two Longprobe Y-wings that were accompanying him on this probing mission. "Ranger Flight this is Raptor, standing by, sound off you two." He spoke into his mic as his sensors began cycling into use.

"Ranger One standing by." A male voice came over the communicator.

"Ranger Two standing by," also chimed in over the comm.

"Good, Ranger patrol release probes and follow flightplan delta let's get a look at what's out..." Raxis began and paused as both he and Vee-Ten noticed far off a very large and ominous fogure in the star system. "...expedite. Release probes and follow evasive flight plan Alpha. Star Destroyer at mark 3.1 heading unknown. We're going to crash those probes out and do what we can till it's time to go. Stay close and cover me, gunners keep alert. Raptor out." He added over the comm as he jerked his X-wing into its new heading. Happy to hear two clicks over the comm from Ranger One and Two, he knew his reputation for being a troubleseeker on patrols had just immediately gotten worse.

Flying in formation with the other fighters, Krieg takes his flight into a dive, something that was most enjoyable to any pilot as the rush of the ground coming rapidly into your face will excite anyone. Having the formation break he leads the pack in a spiral dive, deftly darting in and around clouds while shallowing out the pitch as he zooms in and out of the white puffy clouds over one of the planet's many oceans. Soon he was able to find a patch of dark blue water on the bright sunny afternoon and he dives in to see how close he can get to the water without touching. His wingmen play a bit in the clouds, having some fun on their own. Over their frequencies he says, "Alright everyone, have some fun. We'll head back in a few minutes. All patrols have reported in as to the completion of their mission and are headed back to ship." clicks of reply came in from the other fighters. For now the X-wing and wingmen were not noticed, but with a V2SD in system it would not be long before they were seen.

A silent prayer uttered, Raxis wonders at that moment whether or not the two recon outfitted Longprobe Y-Wings were filled with similar prayers. Washing away the thought, Raxis kept his eyes peeled and signalled over their comm system's typed screen commands for radio silence. Little yellow letters across his vid-screen display his order, and again Raxis smiles but this time at the lack of clicks over the comm system. Eyes peeled, Raxis and Ranger patrol cruise towards their first of four waypoints, as small base-ball sized probes are silently launched from the Astromech bays of the Y-Wings.

Just as Krieg was ducking into a cloud to enjoy a little in and out with some of his wingmen the VSD calls him. "Control to Raptor lead. Sensors have just picked up a flight of rebel craft. Make and model unknown at this time, however we count a formation of three fighter/bomber class. Acknowledge with ident." Clicking the ident for flashing his craft's location to the star destroyer he calls up his flight. "Raptor flight terminate. We have inbound rebel craft in the system. Form up on me, we'll be making our way up and out." Pulling his own craft on a trajectory to take him out of the atmosphere the four other fighters form up on him. "All scout and recon craft, return to base if you have not already. Recall the patrols and standby for jump. Raptor lead out."

"Great...." Raxis sighs to himself beneath the comm as he turns the outbound on to his wing's private frequency and breaks radio contact. Quietly, he watches as a wing of TIE fighters on the surface begin to pack up and start heading towards their patrols. Rushing through their first paypoint, they continue their sweep. "Radio silence lifted. Ranger patrol we have a flight of 5 TIE fighters inbound. Gunners at the ready, weapons free. We are going to run this patrol for the moment, evasive maneuvers all towards waypoints till otherwise noted. Raptor out." Raxis finishes, hearing two clicks over the comm as he adjusts his ship to be facing towards the incoming TIE fighters. Switching to proton torpedos, Raxis centers his targetting reticle over the lead TIE and humms along quietly as the loud computer primes the torpedo for a weapons lock. His reticle turning red with a painted lock, he squeezes the trigger to begin their combat. "Fox Two, away!" Raxis calls out, as a blue hazed orb rockets towards the flight of TIEs.

As the formation finally gets together it breaks up just about as fast, with the two fighters on the left breaking in a pair off to that direction, and the right pair doing the same the other way. Krieg does what many know him for - something non-standard. Instead of breaking with the other fighters he ran straight for the torpedo, easily moving above and away in a spiral to push at maximum speed into the x-wing. "Raptors, engage the escorts. The X-Wing is mine." He's cool, calm, and collected in what many would see as a personal insult at having a torpedo put in your face. Knowing they should be going and leaving these guys here, Krieg also realizes to retreat is failure. The only way out was through them, and with their craft disabled and destroyed.

As he races in towards the X-Wing he pulls up his own targetting solution, getting a good tone. Instead of the torpedos like the other craft did his four lasers are armed and ready to fire, lancing out at Raxis in reply to the other man's attack.

"Ranger squadron pull out! Evasive!" Raxis calls out over his comm as the lead TIE fighter rains green blasterfire at an upwards angle into his X-wing. Raxis watches in horror as his shields, and firing systems blink out one by one, accented by the binary screaming of Vee-Ten in its canopy. "Ranger Squadron switch to..--rder B, exit. Bravo team to exfil--" Raxis yells over a broken communications system as his X-Wing begins to heat up and pull through the atmosphere of Bimmissari. Pushing the engines to angle itself for an insert, Raxis' X-wing glows white hot as it punches through the planet's gravitational pull and becomes a streaking ball of fire over the Bimm's countryside. "Retreat, rep---t Bravo to cover." Raxis yells out over the comm before a wash of static screeches over the NR wavelengths.

Inside the cockpit, Raxis fights over the controls and begins cursing as his engines die. Pounding on the console, a fire catches in the cockpit as sparks begin shooting over his controls. "Kark it!" Raxis growls and reaches beneath his legs and pulls up on the two releases to eject both him and Vee-Ten.

"Roger Raptor we are bugging out." The voice of Ranger One records over recording flight logs. Blasterfire erupts around the two retreating Y-wings as their turret gunners begin in a heated cat and mouse game with the approaching TIE fighers. With a frown, the grizzled pilot of Ranger One records the time, as his astromech unit notes that Ghost 3's signature has faded from radar. "Ranger One reporting 17:24:16 Ghost 3 is down, status unknown." The pilot swerves as their blue-tinged ion fire from the turrets create a defensive perimeter around them, as the two Y-Wings streak towards the exit location of the approaching Bravo group.

Assaulting the fighter, Krieg moves deftly and off to another vector for the y-wings. He wastes no time in moving between targets, killing with lethal efficientcy. Perhaps the other pilot was very green or very new, or maybe it was a bad shield setup. Whatever the reason, he was rewarded with the glowing reds and oranges of the craft setting on fire and breaking up in the re-entry to the planet. The four TIE fighters on his wing converge now on the y-wings as there was one less target. Calling up quickly to the Nemesis Krieg orders a flight be launched and sent to his current location. Just as he finishes he gets a good tone and opens up with his lasers once more on one of the y-wings, green streaks of death lashing out once more.

It isn't long after the call from the Marshall to the Nemesis, that a team is assembled and loaded on a shuttle. The call from the bridge confirms that the shuttle has clearance to depart, Xy'lear at the controls as he powers up the engines, "Orders confirmed, command." Marking the position of the Marshall's group of fighters and the nearby planet, he lifts off and flies from the hangar into the open space. Well aware of the enemy Y-fighters as he makes sure to keep his distance, knowing that a shuttle is no match for a starfighter. Clicking on the com to the Marshall, "Shuttle departing, Marshall. We'll be at your position within moments, Dagnmith out." Clicking off the com as he double checks the status of the shields on the craft as he heads towards the Marshall.

The starfield scrolls along at a fast pace as a counter counts down time to reversion. A few seconds before it reads double zero, Rebecca tightens her flight gloves around her slender fingers and re grips the flight stick. Then the counter hits zero and she flips the lever up to revert back to real space. Her X-Wing jostles a bit as the ship comes back to real space. Her eyes widen at the scene before her. "Sithspit!" She says as she thumbs the switch to split the S-Foils into their infamous position. She spots an Y-Wing as it tries to flee. She opens a com "Dagger Squadron, what in Vader's black bones is going on?"

Rushing in alongside Rebecca's Ghost 9 is a fellow X-wing piloted by an officer of the New Republic. Grimmacing over his moustached face, the orders begin to ring in to him as the view is filled with TIE fighters chasing a pair of Y-Wings with a Star Destroyer in the background. Ghost three is sadly nowhere to be found. "Ghost 9 and shuttle Orion," The officer begins, navigating towards the TIEs. "Mission update. Escort Ranger patrol to jump point A and exfiltrate. Repeat. Exfiltrate. Weapons free."

Cursing loudly in Trader's Argot Askra pulls the shuttle down into a tight spinning loop as she comes out of hyperspace "Damn stupid thing move faster.." she keys in her com and growls "Sithspit what's happening here, moving to evasive patterns, try and keep me covered I can probably out flie these disposable pilots but they have alot more firepower than I do." she keys the com off and begins moving towards the planet, attempting to lose any chasers.

Rushing towards the ground beside his astromech droid, Raxis' eyes are wild as he hears a distant explosion followed by a wave of heat as his X-Wing begins to break up and engines begin rupturing. Rushing towards the ground, his paracute unfolds and he begins his descent into a wooded river valley.

Meanwhile, Ranger Patrol fights for their lives as they dodge in and out of blasterfire. TIE's dodging infront of them and behind, their weakness in the form of poor maneuvering is evident as their turret gunners fight to keep them alive. "Ranger One this is Two!" A female voice calls out over the comm. "Reinforcements inbound. I got one on my tail! Help!"

Under the combined fire from Krieg and Raptor flight send one of the Y-Wings into the abyss. The two pods break away from the bomber turned recon craft as it plummets into the atmosphere, not long behind Raxis. The craft, however, took a serious hit to the cockpit and both people aboard died instantly, not to ever give the ISB any sadistic gratification. Krieg takes his craft now and punches up the speed, seeing that the last Y-wing was going to break away. Letting his wingmen attack them, he turns his sights to the new x-wings, especially the one on the left that had a very aggressive stance to it (Rebecca). He presses forward with the initiative and opens fire once again, the rest of his wingmen keeping the NR pilots off him. After Krieg fires he calls to the Imperial shuttle, "Execute Abolish. I repeat, execute abolish."

Keeping an eye on Dagnmith in the shuttle and the rest of her squadron as it maneuvers towards the Marshall's position, Dante keys the fighter's sensors to continually sweep the system. The dancing between the assets in place and the enemy fighters has her quietly issuing orders to her squadron. Leaving Alpha-5 to continue to fly cover for the shuttle, Dante takes the rest of her squadron to engage the enemy alphabet fighters, "Pair up," she orders simply before moving into position to pick one of the Y-wings and firing at it. Solon_Halwinder has disconnected.

Flicking the com on, Xy'lear answers back to the Marshal, "Ten four, Osprey. Abolish under way," with the ship moving towards the nearby planet. The shuttle quickly cuts through the atmosphere of the planet with the sensors doing a tight sweep over the planet below, in the general vicinity where the computer calculates the enemy ship went down. The ship executes a sharp bank to the right and down, losing more altitude until it sails over the tree tops of the valley with the sounds of the shuttle engines marking its passage. Powering down the ship with a few switches it slows its motion and nearly comes to a halt as it hovers for the time being, searching for any signs of remains of the downed Rebel Pilot.

Hearing her wingmate's order Rebecca double tsk's her com. She angles her fighter onto the troubled Y-Wing. "Ranger Two angle towards me and I'll scrape that thing off your exhaust." She tightens her grip on the flight stick and thumbs over to torpedoes. She settles the targeting brackets over the distant silhouette of the chasing Tie, they slowly blink from yellow to green, with the intervals shortening every second. Then fire rolls out from an unchecked sector and she instinctively rolls her fighter through several reversing barrel rolls and checks her sensor board and watches as the Tie starts to settle in behind her and she grins. "Maybe you can assist in scraping one off of me too, Ranger Two." She giggles and the sound wafts over the NR channels.

"Ghost Nine, break and escort shuttle. Repeat. Break and escort shuttle. Jump coordinates locked in. Set jump timer to five seconds and return to rendez-vous. That's an order pilot." The lieutenant calls out over the comm as its S-foils begin to close and push to accelleration for hyperspace. "Jump in five...four..."

Sighing loudly, Askra turns the shuttle "Dammit.." she guns the engines in an attempt to get out of the planet's atmosphere and to rejoin the X-Wings, thankful that she hasn't been targeted by any of the Imperials "Dammit, why couldn't we get to him." she punches a console and holds the throttle back just a bit "C'mon move faster, gotta get out of the gravity well.."

With a loud crunch, Raxis' grav-chair hits the ground and a moment later so does the protective parachute of his astromech droid. Wasting no time, Raxis rips off his harness and grabs his emergency kid and runs to Vee-Ten. Unhooking the parachute he barks at the droid with a sweat-soaked face. "Hurry up Vee we've gotta get moving!" as he kicks up dirt and turns, sprinting for the tree line.

"Ranger One taking heavy fire..." The gruff voice of the Y-Wing pilot calls out as Dante bears in on it. The turret gunner, in a frenzy, turns to fire on the agile TIE figher to no avail as the blasterfire roars in. Sensing worse, the Y-wing pilot slaps a button on its console and the data from the recon uploads quickly to the shuttle. The turret gunner begins to yell frantically as the last of the Longprobe Y-Wing's shields are obliterated and the Y-Wing is destroyed, starting with the turret gunner. The cockpit explodes, sending its long engines to spiral out to the sides in a brilliant wash of fire and vapor.

Watching the scene unfold before his very eyes as his pilots were some of the best in the galaxy Krieg almost didn't have to do anything anymore. Keying the mic on all frequencies so that their NR friends could hear he says to them in an ice cold tone, "Leave. Leave now and never come back. Know that you have met the surgical power and precision of the Empire, and you have failed. You live out of my good grace. Forlorn hope, for you have met the Empires finest. Watching the X-Wings run in terror Krieg smiles as he spins his craft around. If they follow he'll unleash a firestorm that has not been seen in a very long time. If they heed his advice, however, they will leave. He chuckles to himself, they may never come back again for the terror they have strcuk into them. Taking a vector back to the Nemesis with Raptor squadron, both aptly named for the engagement today, he calls to all flights. "Complete order Abolish. All squadrons return to base. Excellent hunting, monitor exit vectors."

It isnt long before the sensors pick up a humanoid sign and that of a droid, piloting the vessel forward with a sharp power up of the engines, only to have it comes to hover above the tree tops and hold that position near the tree line. Double checking the status of the atmosphere he nods to himself. Flicking another switch the exit ramp opens and Xy'lear leaves the pilot seat and steps forward with his hands coming to plant on the metal hall around the edge and peers out. Spotting the running form of the Rebel pilot, he yells out. "The glorious Empire sends its most sincere wishes, I hope this rebel scum enjoys the scenery." After the insults he moves back out of the entrance opening, a flicker of power rising from the weapons as they seem to be fully charged, but nothing for the moment happens.

As if in sync with Krieg the entire time, Dante rolls off the second Y-Wing as it turns into scrap for someone lucky enough to find the metal if it survives re-entry. She takes her craft around and forms up a mere few feet off Krieg's wing, the rest of her wingmen coming to form up in a vee formation. She calls to Krieg, "Formed up and awaiting orders. Enemy fighters are still on scanners, monitoring for secondary attack.

Rebecca barely notices that her torpedoes hit and she breaks off. "Copy that, I'll jump when able, have a tail I need to shake first." She sets the X-Wing in a random evasion pattern, making the ship bounce up and down and to the sides as she maneuvers the X-Wing to along side the shuttle. Her eyes scan the sensor board looking out for any targets that aim for her or the shuttle. As the open frequency comes on and the Imp says what he has to say. Rebecca opens up the same frequency. "You may have won the battle, but you haven't won the war. And that, you worthless pile of Bantha dung, won't be the Imperial Military." With that Rebecca changes the com over to the shuttle. "As soon as you clear the well, jump. I'll be right behind you." After a few moments she jumps in time with the shuttle into hyperspace, Rebecca slamming the hyperdrive control down and her ship lurches into hyperspace. Rebecca frowns and curses at herself as the stars streak into the wall of white that's normal for hyperspace.

Askra curses loudly and hits the ignition to the hyperdrive and prepares for the familure stretching stars and the tunnel of lights that is hyperspace, instead her cyberntic arm suddenly registers a power surge of electricity and she suddenly lets out a scream, and inadvertantly hits the com sending out "..frelling...gah!" before the engines flicker and the whole shuttle goes black "Ahh...crap..." she mutters as the lights come back on "What the..." she says as the shuttle begins to drift.

Huffing and puffing as his legs push him to the point of exhaustion. Sadly, Vee-Ten is labored and even at its top speed is unable to keep up. Scrambling with a blaster in hand, Raxis keeps his eyes on the tree line and pushes his legs to work as fast as possible.

Watching the NR fighters enter hyperspace along with their shuttle, Krieg smiles to himself. The NR knew not to mess with them, and their reconaissance ships were destroyed. There wouldn't be any significant data getting back to the rebels now. As for Rebecca's comments, he passes them off as words of nothingness. Her time was coming soon for that same smackdown. Over the comm he comes back to his forces, "We leave as soon as the last ship is aboard. Leave the enemy pilot down there, rebel patrols will be back. We have other matters more important to attend to." Taking his own fighter and the other craft around him they proceed back to the Nemesis for a flyby to dock in the hangar bay not long thereafter.

A flick of a switch and the door reseals itself on the shuttle as it remains hovering above the tree line. All of the sudden the lasers send forth a salvo of blasts in the area of the fleeing Rebel Pilot, but clearly too high for them to be of any lethal threat. They do set the tree tops on fire, yellow flames bursting into life and the crackle of leaves can be heard as the moisture sizzles and they curl, only to have the flames fanned by the departing shuttle. Xylear powering up the engines as he arches the ship upwards towards open space, clicking the com back on, "Osprey, Abolish accomplished. Returning to Nemesis. Shuttle out." Once clearing the planet, even more power is pushed into the engines as it quickly returns tot he Capital ship and docks in the hanger, behind the other arriving starfighters.

A good deal of the shuttle's floor is now covered in components, the Bothan who had recovered moments after her shock is now busy hotwiring electronics and keeping an eye on the Imperials, making sure they didn't spot "Dammit, stupid peice trash..." she rams her cybernetic arm through a console and wrenches the top off and begins pull wires apart and put them back together until she feels and hears the engines restart "Yes, finally..." she whoops and runs back to the pilot's chair "Alrighty Bothan ingenuity at it's finest." she mutters aloud and pushes the stick up, testing to see if the controls still work "Yessss.." she hisses and starts the shuttle off on its slow crawl to the planet's atmosphere.

Effectively dirt covered, Raxis looks up from his prone position. Having dove for cover in the wash of blasterfire, he can hardly believe his eyes as the Imperial shuttle simply...leaves. "What the..." Raxis says under his breath, looking back to Vee-Ten's approaching form. "...what the hell is going on?" He adds, doing a double take to look back at the burning tree line.

Boarding the Nemesis Krieg makes his way to the bridge. A staff officer meets him on the flight deck and follows him to the bridge, briefing him on all that has happened since he was aboard and what has been happening on the Nemesis. The key thing is that a shuttle never made it to hyperspace, but was now coming back to the planet on what looked like a rescue. Not looking at the other officer until the bridge Krieg looks to him and says, "Thank you. You are dismissed." Getting a status report from another officer on the bridge he watches on screen what is going on. "We are done here. Jump." It's short and sweet, and to the point. Soon the Nemesis is turning into a streak and an afterthought, leaving the rebels to wonder what was more important for the Empire to be doing than capturing a pilot so easy to take.

Not really caring what the reason for the Imperial pull out is Askra manages to enter the atmosphere, though she does take the time to make a rude gesture out towards the Stardestroyer, she finally spots the burning patch of trees "Well here's something..." she mutters and pilots down over the area. Raxis should either hear or see the shuttle approaching or circling around him "Dammit where is he..." she leaves the shuttle on autopilot and goes under the control area to try and get the sensors back online "C'mon...dammit stupid Imps, stupid shuttle, stu..." she growls as a small shower of sparks erupt and the sensors come online "Yeah, about time...ok here we go..." she gets back in her chair and finally locates the pilot and moves towards him, making an effort to land infront of him, she kicks the landing gear and settles down with a small thud and opens the back of the shuttle up, the door jams for a second before she rushes back and punches it as hard as she can, making it jerkily slam down "Hi!" she yells and waves her hands.

Seething, Raxis unbuckles his helmet and rips it off. Slamming his pistol back into his holster he and Vee-Ten waste no time in boarding the shuttle. Storming up the ramp, Raxis hustles towards the cockpit and slides into the copilot's chair. "Let's get the hell out of here and get home..." He gruffly barks, none too pleased. "...damnit did Ranger One and Two make it?"

Shaking her head Askra turns back "Ignore the mess, the hyperdrive shorted out and electricuted me." she sits down in the pilot's chair "And both Y-Wings were mercilessly guned down by those imps." she starts the start up procedure and looks down at Vee-Ten "I need you to rewire the hyperdrive, it's a bit crusty but should make it." she snarls and hits the panel with her cybernetic hand, which looks a bit dented now, not to mention burn blackened. The shuttle starts up obiediently and begins to ascend "You have to get the snarl and the punch just right, or it won't start now." she says as she pilots out of the atmosphere.