RPlog:Revolutions End

Nar Shaddaa and Nal Hutta have seen better days. The moon orbits the Hutt world in silence. Hanging over the moon was an impressive array of ships, in the center the dominating, wedge shape of the I2SD Predator and her escorts a pair of Nebulan-B Frigates. These vessels of traditional Imperial markings rest in a defensive position over a small array of Skipray Blastboats, the Interdictor Noquella's Embrace, and the Interdictor Corvette Purple Haze. Dozens of fighters buzz around the ships and anyone listening in to the comm. chatter could easily be overwhelmed by the level of cross ship communication and traffic control.

Between the planet and moon was an area of space that was completely free of any vessels, a no man's land separating an impressive array of tramp freighters and older, but modified capital class vessels that made up a hired mercenary fleet that was designed to aid the Hutt's in taking control of their system back. The two fleets seem poised on the edge of combat as occasionally a ship would attempt to break formation and run for the moon, and in the process the Sith's forces would swarm and destroy the vessel in seconds. Tension slowly over the last several days had been on the edge of breaking...

Suddenly the Predator's weapons charge to full and it begins launching dozens of craft as they begin to break into the atmosphere of the moon escorted by fighters, no doubt troop ships. Without any additional warning the Sith's ships and his allies turn their guns onto the Hutt forces and begin opening fire. The battle goes from cold war to hot. Dozens of squadrons of TIE craft begin to launch out of fighter bays against the mercenaries Z-95s and R-41 starchasers. Smaller craft in the mercenary fleet disappear in an instance, the battle had begun.

One of the squadrons that launched is lead by a single X-wing starfighter, the Sith, Darth Malign had joined the fight personally with a squadron of TIE Interceptors behind him all painted black with a light red trim, "Form up." He orders, "Charge weapons and stand by. Captain, our objective is to devastate the Hutt fleet, I do not want it obscuring our vision any longer." The battle hand begun.

Aboard the Privateer, a Pirate Captain with a obvious limp is busy barking orders to his crewmates, who are running this way and that. "SHIELDS UP LADS! QUIT LAZIN' ABOUT OR I'LL SHOOT YOU ON THE SPOT!" He limps his way across the bridge, before pausing as he turns, then carefully sits himself down in his chair. "Forget launchin' the Z's. Prepare to begin the shooting." He spins himself in that chair for a moment, and then comes to face the front of the bridge once more, staring out. The Pirate - Juran, takes a deep breath as he lowers a hand, pressing a button as his voice moves over the entire ship. "Right.. This ain't nothin' that we've done before. We've always done raids.. Quick ones.. This one, ain't no quick' un. This is a long, drawn out battle.. I trust every single one of you under me.. So don't make me look like a bloody pile of Bantha Poodoo." His finger lifts up from the button, and he wipes his nose. "Move into position, charge turbolasers.. We're in it fer the long 'aul."

The Ravager, under it's new captain Keline Nhlern, also begins to join in the assault with the Inquisitor and it's support vessels. It's launch bays deploy it's force of bombers which join the stream of those coming from the other ships. In addition to this the Strike Cruiser's guns turn in their turrets toward the enemy fleet and begin firing as well. Keline is sitting in her command chair, eyes focused on the sensor data being projected in front of her, as she issues a command. "Support the Star Destroyer and the frigates as much as possible. Restore shields to the hanger bay as soon as all bombers are away.

While the space battle had begun, the simple defensive posture was slowly beginning to change, the closer knit battle group of Imperial ships begins to split slightly apart to spread their firepower without any restrictions. Following the lead of the Sith's Squadron, the rest of the fighter bays of the Predator and remaining support craft leave at high speed to converge on their assigned targets. Opening like a large net, the frigates and Star Destroyer quickly bring their weapons to bear and await the orders of their commanders, while the frequency opens up again, "This is Captain Dareus, Lightning Squadron is en route as well to back you up Lord Malign and the fleet is being deployed as we speak. The frigates will take flanking positions around the Independent fleet and engage. All ships raise shields and activate all turbolasers and ion cannons. TIE Squadrons, good hunting. Dareus out." As the Capital Vessels reach their positions, calculated turbolaser shots begin to streak through the swarms of fighters, towards the larger freighters and Capital Ships.

Klaxons begin to scream on the CSAV Authority, which rouses it's Captain, and the commander of the small CSSD task force, Colonel Gren Delede. The one-eyed ESPO jogs from his ready room, a burning deathstick in one hand. The reports of the fleets' actions and deployments begin to come his way, and as he sorts them out, he slides into the command chair aboard the heavily upgraded Strike Cruiser. "Launch all fighters, and raise shields..."

A draw on the smoke, and he hits a button on his chair, opening a channel to the Marauder- CSAV Emendation, and single Guardian class light cruiser that happened to be aboard the Emendation. "Captain Virda. Corporate Sentinel is on your wing. I want those IRDs off your hangar deck, and forming a fighter screen. We are hitting the Noquella's Embrace with everyone we've got. Only fire on the other ships in defense." A sigh, and he adds, to his new wife.."And take care of yourself, love." The pressure on the button is lifted, and he begins to snap orders once again.

"Comms. Send a message to Captain Allure. It's time for her to get her ass off of that moon. Tell her that we will knock down the gravity wells, and then we're all getting out of here." A smile..."Helm. Take us in. That interdictor must be disabled, if our people are going to be safe. Guns...fire as soon as we have range. Only target starfighters that pose a direct threat." He's on a very direct mission, and doesn't want to cause too much collateral damage. A squadron of Z-100 Centurions begins to boil out of the Authority's hangar bay, followed by another of IRD-A's, and the all begin to form into a fighter screen around the CSSD's larger vessels.

Seifer Wolf, back in the cockpit after a long drawn out assignment elsewhere, his adrenalin was rushing and was raring to go. "Ugh.. Scimitars.." He said quietly to himself, "Alright, Sigma squadron FORM UP!" He said through the commsystem as the bombers were dropping from the Ravager. His fingers worked as he powered his bomber up and charged his lasers. "Arm all weapons, drop your payloads when you're on target. I'll give the order." He said, the TIE Scimitars spinning and weaving into position, giving Wolf the 'Ready' look. The bombers took position just off the port side of the Ravager, glistening with reflections from the planet. TIEs were always a beauty to behold, or was it only something that Wolf thought? Though these beauties would show their ugly side soon enough.

Aboard the Emindation, the crew is hustling about while trying to make sure the last preparations for battle. Readings are taken, communications listened to, weapons and shields being brought fully on line, all at Lt. Virda's order. The Twi'lek's pouring over the same holomaps she's been looking at over the last week or so, trying to find a kink in the opposition's armor. "Aye, sir." she says out loud in reply to the Colonel's orders before turning her ship's PA system on so that her voice can be heard throughout the entire ship. "This is Lt. Virda. We are targeting the Embrace upon the Colonel's orders. Get the hell out there and show them what we're made of." Shipwide comms is then shut off and the Twi'lek takes up post before the main viewport, watching the fighters as they begin to stream out into space.

Oh great, just freaking great. One of his first shifts as the ship's, that would be the Audacity, new XO, and already he's saddled with a combat situation. And a quite severe one at that. If only they could put this on hold until his shift finished, and the much-more experienced CO was on cal...no, no takers? A sigh being concealed from the rest of the bridge group, Rasi hops onto the command chair that has been vacant for some minutes now. "Sound the alarms, prep the fighters for liftoff. They've launch permission." The Audacity granted the advantage of being a bit away from the bulk of the battle zone, and as such, they're accorded just a few more minutes to prepare before heading in. "Connect me to all our fighters as soon as they've launched."

As the bombers began to form up, Odion Cobb, in Sigma 2, formed up just behind and left of the squadron leader. "One this is Two, weapons are armed and ready. We're formed up and waiting for your orders." He looks ahead at the large ships they're heading for and takes a deep breath. The screaming of the TIEs had faded into the background a long time ago, he no longer noticed but he heard a few still whining a bit. He shook his head and opened up a com channel to Sigma 1 only. "Good to be flying with you again sir, happy hunting."

As soon as Ghost Squadron received the order, Kyrin Sh'vani ordered her people to their ships and away. "Krayt, this is Ghost Leader, we are online and awaiting orders. Our ears are open." Her own pointed ears are nestled within her helmet, and she frowns when her systems tag an X-Wing as hostile. "All Ghosts report in..." With a flick of her fingers, she notifies her pilots with a message that the hostile X-Wing is genuinely tagged. She's seen it before.

Swift is Lance to his X-Wing, and soon, Ghost Six is powered up and following Ghost Leader. Fingers tap along the controls, comms are switched, weapons charged, and Lance Corbet is ready to go. "Ghost Six reporting a go, Ghost Leader." comes the young man's words, his X-Wing falling into formation. "Let's get this party started."

Brilliant flashes and explosions begin to appear between the two approaching fleets. As the Interdictor maintains a close proximity to the Predator its cover ship, the Interdictor Corvette and other support form an anti-fighter screen coupling tractor beams, ion cannons, laser, and turbolaser cannons. Flashes of green, blue, and red move in all directions as the mercenary fleet was taking a pounding and the Interdictor kept its gravity well generators up, the objective was to make sure no mercenaries or Hutts could escape the system, effectively ending their rule of Shaddaa and limiting their power in their own space.

Malign and his fighter group move rapidly staying close to the Predator flying down the wedge and off into deeper space toward a squadron of enemy fighters. The Sith keys his S-foils to lock into attack position as his astromech, R2-N8 or Nate worked on monitoring the battle and keeping Tyler's HUD updated with information as he helped command the battle from the cockpit of his fighter. A stream of red bolts erupt from his cannon as he turns a Z-95 to dust and ducks fire from its wingmates, "Watch that formation, they are baiting and switching, pick your targets and reform in sector 3." With that his squadron splits off and begins engaging fighters making short work of them, he only hired the best, most Corellian, and many his own age.

Nate whistles a few warnings as new targets are picked up, "Captain, we have new targets coming in at sector seven, unknown at the moment. Nate is telling me their trajectory suggests contact with them in a few minutes. Monitor them and point your sensor dish their direction. Malign out." The Sith closes his eyes to concentrate letting the Force guide his motions as his fighter zigs and zags through capital ship point defenses and enemy fighter fire. Things were hot and a few million things were happening at once, lives extinguished in seconds, others hanging on after punching out hoping not to be hit by stray laser fire.

On the moon below, Malign's droid troops were taking control of the moon's shield generators and key areas on the power grid, effectively preparing to seal the moon off from the galaxy above, but ironically giving other ships and personnel time to escape the Moon.

Juran is sitting front on his chair, almost falling off it before he then chuckles. "RIGHT!" He lifts up his hand. "I've always bloody wanted t'say this.." He swings his hand down and points forwards at the fleet. "Engage.", the pirate captain then begins to laugh as he rubs his gloved hand over his unshaven face, leaning back in his seat. "Wait until we get barely into range and then begin to fire." He pauses, then turns his attentions to one side. "New targets, eh?" He snorts, "TR-35. Keep an eye on em'. We're a big ship, but we ain't 'at big. Open fire on the Fighters as they close in, then switch targets t'the larger ships as they close in. Use 'at speed we got."

A few moments pause, then the heavy turbolaser batteries begin to fire, quickly followed up by the laser cannons, sending shots scattering forwards.

Keline, still eyeing the sensor data of the battle, notes the formation of ships closing in an attempt to destroy the Interdictor. Her gives orders to her helmsman to join the ships making a screen in front the ship preventing any access in or out of the system. She then keys in a comm channel to her flight leader and speaks into it. "Squadron Leader, this is the Ravager. Make your way to the force trying to reach the Interdictor. Distribute targets as you see fit but don't try to get blown up.* She turns to the gunnery officer. Open fire on the lead ship; Turbolasers only; if we can punch through the shields and damage them it might knock the rest off balance.

The fleet has been dispersed and spread out just enough, as they begin to encroach slowly towards the combat area; that's now turned into a giant mess of flashes and explosions from the engagement. Each of the larger escort vessels that accompanied the Predator, including their command ship, the Star Destroyer, begin to open up full with their turbolasers, the visually larger beams of energy far more distinguishable than that which comes from any of the fighters out there; streak across the gap quickly and mercilessly. Even with the heavy combat happening not that far off in the distance, over the comm the busy orders along the bridge of the Predator can be heard. Dareus' footsteps take him along the command walkway of the Predator, headset comlink open, while he uses a datapad to help track the movements while he goes about the bridge. "We're tracking them right now my Lord." He hears the com open up from the Ravager and cuts in quickly, "Commander,we'll back you up with the Nebulon's as well. Predator Group, maintain engagement with the Hutt Fleet; bring up firing solution for incoming ships bearing 267, and lock. No one fire a shot until you have your orders." The massive hulls of the Capital ships rotate slightly with their momentum slowing, forward and starboard batteries still firing into the Hutt's makeshift armada, while the port sections fall silent, and re-arm to bear on the possibility of new targets. Standing calmly while staring out the viewport, a sly grin crosses the new Captains' face, while he clasps his hands behind his back, and the bridge crews begin to continue their duties, in a hurried, but well trained pace, glancing at them, it seemed a bit more than simple Imperial efficiency.

"Helm. Point blank range on the Embrace. We're making a run toward the planet, to cover the fleeing civilians and Violet." Ever the valiant soldier...at least he has been for the last week. Another cool glance around the Bridge, and he continues to give orders. "Balance Squadron. Lock weapons on the Embrace. I want concentrated torpedo volleys, people. When her shields come down, target the generators. And, if you get damaged, shuck ass to the edge of the gravity well, and head for home." That works for the Centurions, at least. "Frugal, and Tax squadrons. You are our fighter screen. Keep us, and the Centurions safe." A button is pressed on his command chair, accessing comm channel 17-Besh. It's the channel that he was given access to by Skywalker.

"Audacity. This is Colonel Gren Delede. We are seriously outgunned...but if we work together, we can knock out that Interdictor." A pause, as the first turbolasers from Ravager begin to strike the Authority, and the crew silently thanks the Sector for laying out the credits to upgrade it's shields, and hull. "We've got the torpedoes to hurt her, but we could sure as hell use some help against these fighters. Authority out." The channel to the New Republic is closed.

Another is opened, this one to the Emendation. "Twila. Use the Authority as cover against that Imp Strike Cruiser. I want you to attack that Interdictor from underneath. Support our fighters. Corporate Sentinel is to act as added fighter support." Now, he speaks to his bridge crew..."Guns. Our heavy turbolasers are to target the Embrace, if they've got firing solutions. Now that they've opened fire on us, those with solutions are to fire on the Ravager." A long draw on his smoke, and he sighs. His starfighter is sitting cold, in the hangar. "The rest of our guns are to target incoming fighters, and warheads." Another shudder, but the Authority's shields are still holding, even as it begins firing copious levels of energy at the Interdictor Corvette, which will soon be followed by warheads from the Centurions.

A smile spread across Wolf's face as his old wingman speaks to him through the comms, Wolf moved his head in view of Odion and nodded, before turning to his co-pilot, "Alright, I want those bombs hitting the right places, Renik." He said. "Yessir." Renik replied to him, moving his eyes over the protruding targeting interface. Wolf's eyes moved to the front as he awaited the order to move in. As Keline's call echoed through his Cock-pit, Wolf raised a hand, "Let's GO!" he yelled at the rest of the bomber squadrons. "Head for the incoming larger ships, let Lord Malign sort out the fighters." and with that Wolf's scimitar launched towards the incoming enemy fleet.

"Aye, sir." Lt. Virda says to Gren, her eyes skimming the viewport in the direction of the ship they are targeting. An open comm is then established, not only between the two command ships but also the squadron that's stationed on the Emendation, the woman's voice suddenly authoritative, taking a commanding tone she doesn't take unless in the heat of battle. "Alright..fighters, head towards the Embrace's belly. Do not shoot until you're positive you'll hit." Shifting, she pivots on one foot slightly, looking towards the navagations' officer's station. "You heard the Colonel. Move us into a flanking position behind the Authority. I want us out of the range of those Imperial guns as well as those of anyone else here.." Grunting, she mutters under her breath, "I belong on solid ground.." bitching to herself as she moves towards an ensign who just approached the bridge, read-outs in hand.

"Ghost Leader, this is Krayt, patching through to the XO...", and in the days of instantaneous communication, it is not long before Rasi's voice is heard, "This is Audacity Actual, alright Major, assemble your fighters and stick close to us. The Commander had called for some backup earlier, and the Lightbringer is due to make an appearance at any moment now." And as though the officer was prescient, a large, metallic shape materializes well within sight of the Republican Forces. "Here it is." And as soon as communications between the Corvette and the Gunship are established, the slim-shaped vessel moves to take place alongside its bigger sister.

The following message transmitted to both the gunship, and the Ghosts, "Priorities for now include searching for the vessels transporting our people off the planet. Secondary ones are hurting the Imperials gathered here and especially their Interdictor, cooperate with the CSA's forces as you see fit, and don't attack the Hutts' assets, but you've absolute permission to defend yourself. Another priority is to protect them against the Imps if you see the opportunity." His voice as steely as he can make it, and perhaps as a way of inspiring those on the bridge, and he crosses one leg over the other. In his. rather short, experience with command, it is always better if you look composed, almost nonchalant. "Ghosts, go in first, maybe you can draw some of their fighters in, and we'll finish them off if they miss us." Thank the Maker(it's the droids' deity, but hey...you take what you can get) that the Jedi aren't here, else maybe someone'd figure out that the Fondorian is not even half as relaxed as he appears.

And at last he answers that transmission received from the Authority, "Authority, this is Lt. Commander Praddhan Cen. The fighters are ours, the Audacity will provide cover fire, as well as help out." Now if only he had some Wagner to play over the loudspeakers, and then maybe the entrance of the New Republic into the fight would be a bit more impressive. "Cover the fighters as soon as they go in, and keep us as far away from the Predator as possible."

"Copy that, on your wing." Odion pushed the throttle forward to catch up with Sigma 1 and turned to his co-pilot. "Alright then, Dac, you ready?" The bombardier nodded, "Aye sir, just give the word." Odion nodded and gripped the flight controls a bit. "Here we go then."

Aboard Ghost One, the ship's pilot nods to herself as she receives the orders. "Acknowledged, Krayt, we have partners for our dance." Switching channels, Kyrin starts splashing Imperial assets with priority codes. "Ghost Squadron, form up, S-foils in attack position. Hostile X-Wing is to be taken out if possible, but keep your minds on our mission. Let us provide our allies with the support we promised and ensure their victory. For freedom, my friends..." And the Chyleni increases her ship to its maximum speed, leading the squadron's charge into the fray, red death being poured out against the enemy starfighters as soon as she's in range.

Aboard Ghost 7, the Corellian Lieutenant replies to his CO's order over the tactical net with a "Roger that, Phoenix" and locks his S foils in attack position. Hitting his comlink, the Squadron XO sends to his flight " Ok Spectres, You heard the Boss Lady, people. Form up, get to attack speed and and get ready for business. Angle your shields towards the threat and start prioritizing your targets. And get those torpedoes warm - we don't get paid to bring 'em home. Lance you're my wingman for this dance. Keep your eyes peeled. Sandman, out."

"Understood." calls Lance over the comm, and within the cockpit, his brow furrows into a look of concentration as he punches the throttle forward, accelerates to full speed, following Ghost One's lead. S-Foils locking into attack position, Ghost Six descends upon the battle, falling in on Sandman's starboard flank. And, as he enters range, he takes after Kyrin, and opens fire, weapons blazing afore him.

Xar'on gets on the CSA channel and in a weak, raspy voice, says, "Hey, One-Eye, we're comin' up. Watch what yer shootin' at, ya half-blind..." the rest of his transmission is lost in static. Violet cringes as she takes off from Nar Shaddaa. Though she is still groggy from whatever meds the doc put her on to make her functional, she was able to analyze the danger. Halfway wanting to turn the ship around, Vi pounds the thrusters to full speed allowing the ship to gain momentum as it leaves the smuggler's moon. Vi attempts to 'scoot' her little ship around the larger ones. She was too sick for too much confrontation, though could do whatever needed to be done to save her and the ship. Vi yanks the yolk, a bit too hard, causing the Venture to lean into a roll.

"Aye Sir," Dante speaks aloud via com to Wolf, her co-pilot echoing the response as both focus intently on the task at hand. Guiding the bomber in formation, following Odion and Wolf down the line, Dante speaks quietly to her co-pilot as they sort out potential targets. While the targeting computer pulls up one firing solution after another, Dante and Mac prepare to commencing firing once the word is given.

Splitting into three flights, Falcon Squadron, with Lt. Colonel Ridge Archilles in the lead, skirts around the main fray starting up several hundred clicks away. His squadron had special orders, and as much as they wanted to join in, they couldn't without being handed a lot of top brass bantha poodoo. Twisting at the stick slightly, Ridge centers himself in the general direction of the Imperial Strike Cruiser, whistling to himself as he does so. The three flights follow his lead almost exactly. He is pleased with their quick training, as most of them were chosen rag tag for this mission, most with very little experience in an A-wing, and even less under Archilles' command. His scanner blinks in front of him as a flight of TIE Interceptors fly near. Grinning, he gives a few quick commands to his squadron and closes in.

Another Hutt squadron falls as Malign and his group of rugged pilots continue to move at rapid speed through the mass of mercenary ships. With the concentration and organization of the Sith forces the Hutt mercenaries were already breaking up losing several ships and their formations breaking down, they knew their time was over and with that came some breaking off into a full retreat to try to move around to the other side of the planet and others signalling surrender codes and powering down their shields and weaponry. Those few left fighting did valiantly and with intensity, turning their guns on their bane, the Noquella's Embrace. Aboard the Embrace the Captain, one of Axel Vichten's employees, monitors the systems and the power levels, "Our weapons are at one-third power, maintain shields and generators. If the going get tough though the tough get going, inform the Predator that we have instructions to retreat if we lose our shields." The message is relayed.

Malign watches the approaching ships with a worried expression, "Dareus, open fire, full volley turn your guns on those incoming ships. The Nebulan's can handle what is left of the mercenary fleet." He was not sure if they could or not, but being sandwiched in between a desperate group of mercenaries and an organized New Republic and Corporate Sector attack group forced him to weigh the options, "Purple Haze, Privateer, finish off the Hutt ships." He says, as the Purple Haze launches a squadron a few Z-100s and Z-105s toward the enemy.

Malign's squadron, known only as Squad 1 turn their attention to the rapidly approaching CSA vessels. His hazel eyes stare down at his targeting computer before kicking his engines up to full power, his Interceptor squadron barely capable of keeping up with the modified Damion's Fury. He silently flips over his firing to missiles and fires a pair of protons at the lead fighters coming in toward the Noquella's Embrace. Lighting Squadron, in support of Squad 1 turns toward Ghost moving rapidly to cover Malign and his forces. The battle was raging on as the Sith's forces divide into two main groups and plan to push both directions.

"Bloody bast-" Juran grunts as his ship is rocked with a hit. "'ats it. Sithspit!" He jabs a finger down onto the comms on his chair. "Understood." He lifts up his left hand and motions to his pilot. "Take us 'round! We're goin' in low and hard!" He swings his arm down then turns to his Astromech. "TR-35. I wan' you to target their underside, as we go past, fire all Turbolasers and Cannons.. But not until 'at moment!" He snorts, then leans back in his chair as the Privateer's modified engines suddenly boost forwards.

The ship is rocked with fire, but the shields manage to hold for the most part, up until the Privateer takes a nosedive, a rocket screaming past it engines. The Privateer appears to pause, drifting for a few moments as it corrects its course and comes up underneath one of the leading Hutt ships..

"FIRE!"

The Turbolasers and Laser Cannons fire as one, causing the ship to shudder, then they begin their barrage on the already weakened shields of one of the hutt ships, causing them to fail, then the Turbolasers fire one last time, ripping a hole through the ship, which causes it to begin to split into two separate halves.

Some new reports beep on his datapad, bringing it to Dareus' attention, quickly scanning through several pages of tactical display without any real emotion on his face, and still listening to the com from the fleet, "As you wish my Lord. Bring us about heading 296, let's spread out this firepower to back her up, all port batteries commence fire." He turns and begins to head back along the catwalk to one of the other tactical displays, skimming the readout quickly over another officers shoulder before turning back towards the viewport and getting a first hand view, always much better, he thought, than a simple screen's display, though he still consults the datpad, "New orders, Emperor's Will, disengage the new arrivals and move to intercept the mercenary fleet . All blastboats from Sector Gamma 1-9 alter course to converge on our position. Lightning Squadron, I want Alpha Wing to alter course and back up Sigma Squadron immediately." He turns back towards his own crew, "Close the distance and put us between the new arrivals and the Hutt Fleet, I want to use all of our firepower to our advantage, and keep them from hiding behind one another. Activate all batteries, port and starboard, commence fire immediately." The viewports can easily show the course adjustments being made; flashes becoming extremely bright while the first Nebulon opens up with her turbolasers, meanwhile Dareus adjusts the fleet movements on the Datapad back on the Predator, his eyes narrow a little, occasionally glancing out of the window, the comlink on vox, but he seems to be speaking to the new arrivals "I was wondering when you would show up..." His fingers move along the datapad quickly to adjust more movements of the fleet, and to check current positionings, "Intimidator, redirect all fire and reposition yourself to decimate what's left of that Hutt group. Predator will pick up the slack against the uninvited guests. Beta Wing, come about and shore up with Lord Maligns' group." The movements and redirection of the fleet play out like a well choreographed ballet, the grin returning to the Captains' face while he watches it first hand through the viewport. The aft sections of the Nebulons float past moving towards the ragtag group while the Predator moves in towards more important targets, only a few short minutes before her turbolasers have been redirected. Once they're safely clear of her escort, brilliant flashes of green begin to erupt from the giant sides of the Star Destroyer, crisscrossing green bolts that make their way toward the Republic and Corporate ships with determination. "Embrace, this is Predator, we're inbound on your position, and ready to back up any retreat you need. Lord Malign, the fleet has been redirected and we're engaging the New Republic and Corporate Fleets as ordered." Turning, he moves along the command walkway once again towards the rear of the bridge, and more detailed tactical displays, "Excellent work gentlemen."

As Malign's squadron closes with those of the CSA, Frugal, the lead IRD-A squadron intercepts, one fighter exploding, thanks to Malign's torpedo, and a second being critically damaged by his second. It disengages, and flees for the Authority. That leaves Frugal, and Tax Squadron to engage Squad One, which they do with an intensity rarely seen in ESPO forces. Their new fleet commander is a starfighter pilot, and he's made sure that branch is well-prepared, atleast. The Corporate Sentinel, a Guardian-Class Light Cruiser also enters the starfighter fray, it's turrets spitting green-death.

The fighter screen of IRD-A's, allows the 12 Z-100's to launch a rippling wave of destructive proton torpedoes at the Embrace, which they obviously intend to sustain, until forced to retreat.

As the laser batteries from both the Predator and the Ravager begin to pummel the Authority's shields, Delede sighs. "Don't count on a Hutt to spend on a decent fleet..." Still, he sits casually in his command chair, smoking, and watching the scanners, and engineering read-outs. The ship's shields are weakening, but as of yet, they hold. "Increase power to shields. Take it from the Engines." A pause, and he looks toward his helmsmen. "Move to screen Captain Allure's vessel..."

"It's good to see you, Venture. Make for the Authority. As soon as we can knock out these damned grav-wells, you jump to hyperspace. Until then, see what you can bloody do about those fighters." A flick of a switch, and he changes frequencies..."Emendation, keep firing at the Embrace, but feel free to fire on the Ravager, with the the batteries that can't hit the primary target. And, if things go badly, bug out." A frown, and he shuts down the comm..."Guns. Keep splitting our fire between the Embrace, and the Strike Cruiser, but do not bloody let up. Use our light batteries if you have to."

"You heard him...keep firing but be careful. We are drawing more fire than I feel comfortable with." Turning again, Twila slips over towards the navigation console, typing in a few new coordonates. "Weapons? I want you fully powered. And I want to be sure that our shields are fully powered. It will only be a matter of time before they're shooting at us and I personally do not want to find myself in an escape pod if we can help it." Grunting, she waits for the ship to slip away from the one it's been hiding behind. Time for the pup to get into the frey. "You can put me in a detention cell for this later, Gren.." she says over open comms. "But this is one pup who is not going to tuck tail and hide while the big dogs come out to play." She has a sensors sweep ran once she's mostly out from cover, trying to get a feel of what is where.

Swerve, dodge, pirouette, 360...ok, so it's not a fighter we're talking about here, it's a pretty large corvette, admittedly one of the smaller capital ships, but still, it's something, and Rasi's quite proud of it. And he'll be even more proud of her if she got through this, if for no other reason than he can get back to Ord Mantell. The Audacity follows in just some short distance away from her fighters, and apart from the occasional batteries firing to pick up some of the nearby fighters, or to defend herself, she is for the most part silent, still biding her time. The same cannot be said of Rasi, his heart beating so hard that he wonders why people haven't heard it quite yet. But when he speaks, to his surprise and delight, it is with a composed voice that his commands are issued "Comm officer, patch me over to the Authority, immediately.", and when a connection is established, his idea is formulated, "This is Commander Praddhan. I would recommend that you coordinate your firing at their srike cruiser with us. There is a weakness in the connecting sections between the vessel's main frame, and their modules. Let's concentrate our firepower so that we can inflict as much damage as possible, and free us up to concentrate on the Embrace.", the specific firing solutions being fed to their computers from his own GunChief. "Audacity out." The Lightbringer itself sticks close to the Audacity, though its crew is more interested in just firing at will. Those fighters that get close to it picked off, and covering fire laid for the Ghosts as they move forward. "Falcons.", thanked be his comm officer, "We could seriously use you here if you're going to get into the forray. Send everything you have against the Embrace, it's the one keeping us, and the rest of the civilian forces here." His orders given, Rasi watches the display screens, both the actual viewports and the screens with all those shiny dots. Of course, as soon as he sees the Predator beginning to fire, the orders are sent for the Audacity to move quickly out of the way, the shields flaring as they're struck. The Fondorian having to hold on to his seat lest he bounces forward from the shaking his ship takes, but the hull and the shields hold.

Odion gripped the controls as the ship rocked when lasers passed by it. "Damnit, can't they shoot straight!?" The ship shudders again as one passes closer and a few alarms go off. He slams the console and it quiets quickly. He watches Wolf closely, then a transmission comes over the comms. "Aim for the turbolasers. Ready...fire!" Odion repeats the order to his bombardier who proceeds to loose his payload over one of the ship's turbolasers, only a second behind Wolf himself.

"Ghouls, break off and engage those fighters while we continue on the primary mission," Kyrin orders the third flight of Ghost Squadron, not looking to watch that quartet of X-Wings break off to run interference with the ships trying to stop them. A pair of TIEs are gunned down by the Chyleni pilot as her ship skims through the debris, seeking other targets. Then she lets out a Chyleni curse as a TIE gets a bead on her and starts trying to stitch the side of her X-Wing. "All Ghosts, break, break, break. Let us take on this group now and let Falcon take on the capital ships." All the Ghosts then peel off and begin engaging the ships that make up Wolf's squadron. She works her X-Wing around to try and line up on Alex's six, the quad lasers pumping out in 1 2 3 4 sequence, like a musician plucking the strings of her instrument.

As Kyrin's instructions flood in across his consciousness and his comlink, Kesander flips his weapons selector to quad fire. Toggling his comlink, the Corellian piloting Ghost 7 transmits "You heard the lady, Spectres, get to work and watch each other's 6 o'clock. I see anyone flying straight and level and I'll kill you when we get home if the TIEs don't get you first. Lance, stick with me. I count three bandits bearing 260 degrees. Let's go get 'em." As one of the enemy ships strays into the site reticle in his heads up display, the blond-haired pilot squeezes his weapons trigger, sending hell-fire red bolts into the fighter, exploding it.

Dipping and dodging enemy fire, Lance stays on Kesander's wing through it all, his weapons blazing as he zigs and zags. "Bloody HELL!!!" his voice carries over the comm system, carrying to the rest of Ghost Squadron and anyone else on the comm, his own weapons systems set to quad fire. Panic tinges his voice, his breaths coming in heavily as blaster fire zips by his window, a couple bolts whizzing off his shields. More curses follow, yet he maintains his flank on Kesander, firing at any unfortunates who stray within his field of vision.

"Mac, all systems green?" Dante calls out as she brings Sigma-3 into tighter formation with Sigma-2, her eyes narrowed and hands steady as she begins the first steps of the killing dance. Focusing on just this aspect of the battle, and leaving the rest of it to the head honchos higher up in the food chain, Dante nods as Mac replies, "Green for go." Mac's words are spoken mere seconds before Wolf & Co drop their weapons followed by Odion and his co-pilot in Sigma-2. "X-wing on our tail!" Mac sings out, his voiced warning spurring Dante to abruptly roll the bomber closer to Sigma-2 and Odion to attempt to evade the line of fire. Dante also voices a few choice comments as she shifts gears from bombing run to evade-getting-perforated by quad lasers. "Ahh Sigma-2, we're detouring slightly to return fire," Dante voices over the com to Odion, oh so casually, as she opens fire on the rebel who so neatly fired on their six. Banking hard to the side, rolling port side, Dante brings the bomber abruptly around to focus forward weapons on the Ghost Leader and opens fires with all forward weapons.

The hangar bay to the Noquella's Embrace lights up, and screeching out of it is a lance of customized Skipray Blastboats, the infamous 'Boomstick' in the lead, meaning that only one person could be leading the assault. Axel Vichten leads the 3 other skiprays into a wedge formation. The flying weapons platforms were only outgunned by one other ship of the same size, the B-Wing, but the Skipray had one thing the B-Wing did not. It had the advantage of much superior speed. Capital scale ion cannons ignite from the rotating weapon racks on the four skiprays, sending volleys of yellowish-green light into the oncoming assault force destined for the Embrace. Over open comms, Axel states. "Republic and Corporate Sector vessels. This is Axel Vichten, Captain in the Caspar Defense Force Navy. Cease and Desist all attacks against these vessels and leave system. You are committing an act of war against the CDU and attacking a vessel of the Caspian Defense Force. I repeat, you are committing an act of war against the CDU. You have no legal holdings in this system that are threatened. Leave the system now and you MIGHT be forgiven. Continue and you will pay your retribution in lives lost on your own worlds as the CDU will not tolerate your attacks on sovereign vessels and endangering members of the Caspian Defense Force."

Axel never does pause in his assault, the four skiprays spreading out slightly, but staying in a perfect formation. It looked as if they were going to cut straight through the oncoming forces, maybe with an attempt to begin attacks from the rear. Over comms to his own ships, and on a frequency monitored by his allies, Axel says, "Embrace, hard to port, bring your nose towards the enemy. Cut power to all weapon systems and divert to shields. At all costs keep those damn gravity well generators online until we can get confirmation of the Hutt's bloated corpse floating in space or burning in the wreck of a freighter." Yes, Axel was coming close to undermining the command of Darth Malign, but it was his damn ship after all. One that was irreplaceable and has served very well in the CDF reserve fleets while under his command.

Around the same time as the skiprays depart the Embrace, a pair of fully modified z-95a Headhunter II air superiority fighters spit out of the smaller hangar on the Purple Haze. The Chimaera and the Red Comet, two ships which, in many fighter pilots circles, are related to Axel Vichten and Danik Kreldin, obviously neither are flying them but the two ships are notorious for being strong opponents in any form of space combat. The two fighters move in at rapid speed, spitting red laser blasts and decimating their way through the remnants of the Hutt fleet. Several missiles and torpedoes spit out of both fighters at multiple targets, having the combat computers aboard the Haze feeding them targeting parameters.

The Sith's Forces were dividing into two very formidable battle groups, pointed in two different directions as the enemy moves around them. Their training holding their nerves and their perceived fire power allow them not only to hold their own but to be a major threat and risk to their enemies. The Hutt Forces were scattering and being shredded, many of the hired mercenaries have went as far as to turn on one another as temporarily allied mercenary groups dissolve into a violent cross fire between former allies and stray shots being fired toward the Republic and CSA forces.

Malign's squadron keeps their formation tight as the squadron banks on Malign's ability to anticipate attacks, the squad lags a bit due to response speeds to make course corrections or fire shots but the battle hardened vets with Tyler Damion had been seeing war as long as some of the pilots on either side have lived. Malign's number one wing mate was a Corellian named Booster, the old Corellian bites down as he grunts, "Heavy fire from all sides One, their fighter screen will eat us alive unless we do something drastic."

Malign's hazel eyes flicker with faint reflections from his instruments as he nods, "Roger, two. Split into two groups. I'll take Frugal squadron with Booster and Ren, the rest of you jokers take that Tax squad, think of it as a form of 'evasion'." The Comm clicks alive with a brief bit of laughter as the group obeys and turns toward their duties. Lightening Squad wasn't holding up as well as Malign's team getting chewed into pieces by superior organization of Delede's fighter screen. The Sith turns his guns toward the Corporate Sentinel and fires off a few Torpedoes and turning to fire off another few rounds toward a Frugal fighter. Damion's Fury, Tyler's X-wing, moves rapidly through the battle leaving an ion trail only the most seasoned pilots could follow.

The Sith makes another order, "Captain, they are getting desperate. They want to save civilians, well let them know there are more dangerous things than an Interdictor, dedicate some of your guns to destroying civilian craft." He smiles darkly, "And a squadron of fighters." Maybe this strategy would buy the Noquella's Embrace more time from the pounding it was taking. He jerks his yoke diving underneath fire of a perusing enemy as new contacts are red on the HUD, "Vichten good to have you among us tonight, pick your targets and good hunting."

A few seconds is all it takes and the terribly quick and accurate A-wings of Falcon Squadron make quick work of the unwitting TIE Interceptors. After Flight Three bombards the TIEs with their radio jammers, One and Two assault them at different angles, effectively cutting them to ribbons. Ridge's mental timer ticks away as the manoeuvre is executed, and he scowls when they finish. Sure it was fast, and sure it got the job done, but something seems off to the Lt. Colonel. He says nothing as he thinks, maintaining radio silence through the twelve A-wings. The head pilot chews his lip lightly as he searches for another team of TIEs to destroy.

Although the Ghost-like Falcon Squadron is maintaining radio silence, the Falcon-like Ghost Squadron is not, and neither are the rest of the ships provided by the NR. When Ridge hears the request for aid from the Audacity, he nods to himself and responds, speaking for the first time on this mission. Is voice is deep and confident as it speaks. "Audacity and Ghost Squadron, this is Falcon Lead, we're changing course and comin' in." He turns his fighter on a dime he knows none of his squad mates can copy and sends out a command to the rest of his squadron. "Falcon, we've officially been invited to knock on death's door. We're goin' in hard and fast, shootin' the whole way. If they don't know we're comin', then we're doin' it wrong. Shoot to distract- we don't want to lose our buddy Ghosts, as they're rather unaccustomed to how real pilots dogfight." He grins to himself as he pushes on the throttle, his fighter jumping forward towards the main fray. As he goes, he sights down a TIE and fires a volley of lasers on it, lightly scoring the hull. As a much larger barrage of laserfire follows his example, he snaps on the comm to address the Lightbringer, Ghost Squadron and Falcon Squadron. "Ghost Lead and Audacity, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disobey those orders, and I apologize for the insubordination, but I don't want us all dyin'. Ghoul Flight, we're coming up from underneath you, and we'll catch those TIE's by some kind of surprise. You break off immediately and take the rest of your X-bricks to torpedo the hell out of that Cruiser. The only way we're taking out one of those bad boys is by pullin' a Green Squad, and all I can say is Hell No to that." Some might find his calm, unconcerned, and unhastened tone inspiring, and some might find it a tad unsettling. Either way it's taken, the Falcon Leader adjusts his fighter slightly to come up under the X-wing flight in front of him. With a clear angle, he now fires his guns without holding back. He ponders silently as Vichten's message comes over his comm, then, whether deliberately or not, turns his comm to an all-system frequency. "Someone tell Vichten that the NR has as much right to be here as the CDU. Oh, also that if he attacks any of our vessels, the same damage will be visited on his side ten-fold."

Keline begins to rapidly send out orders as the words from her officers begin to blend together but with that of the weapons officer being the loudest. "Captain, we've got another ship opening fire on us. They're trying to weaken the hull connecting the modules together!" Keline turns to look at him, her hands gripping the arms of her command chair, as she delivers an order to him. "Reroute all shields to keep that area intact for as long as you can and return fire with everything we have!" *she turns to the communications officer next.* "Lieutenant, open up a channel to Command." *he quickly presses some keys on his console* "Channel open!" "Command, this is the Ravager. We are under attack by two enemy ships and request assistance. Over!"

For the most part, the battle was going decently, of course never as well as it should be. Hell, the Predator had more damage from space dust and debris than any enemy fire upon it, and still she was moving closer to the Embrace to back her up, the transparisteel viewports flash a consistently green color from her own batteries of turbolasers while the Captain stands reading technical data and damage reports on the fly, checking along with another station for various other things, including one of the StarOps co-coordinators, pointing at the young officers' screen while speaking into the comm again, "Alpha Wing, regroup and escort Sigma, I want their path clear for a full out assault." The Lieutenant nods to Dareus, and the Captain moves along the walkway again, occasionally glancing into the pit as he makes his way forward once again, "Lord Malign, we're moving in to back up the Embrace fully, all weapons systems are active. Should she need to escape, we'll give her a good window." All of the batteries continue their relentless barrage of turbolaser fire as the Predator continues to move in, no longer as in the past from targeting at a distance, but bringing itself into the forefront of the fight to protect what looks to be the biggest target for the enemy, Dareus watching carefully through the viewports, "Ravager, use us for cover if needed, I'm taking the Predator against the bigger Corporate Sector ships." For the moment, anything but the Emendation and Authority are ignored for the time being. "Emperors Will, Intimidator, this is the Predator, Maintain assault on the remnants of the Hutt Fleet, keep us updated with your progress reports." With that, the Nebulons move off to do their own job, leaving the larger command ship to cause its' own manner of havoc. Maligns' voice comes back over the comm and he nods, "Understood, starboard battery redirect youre fire to those civilian ships; chalk them up to wrong place wrong time, I want floating grandmothers." His steps are casual along the command walkway again, "Port side continue to attack the CSA ships." The port side guns find their way to a smaller convoy, a nice set of regular frigates that are changing directions to avoid the fight, until 6 from the line have been decimated by far superior firepower, not even having enough shields to withstand the assault of the Predator, allowing the Destroyer to turn slowly and make its way farther into the fray.

A tight beam transmission is sent toward the source of Axel's transmission. "Victhen. Corporate Sector Security is here to rescue it's own. The CDU has no authority here, and I do not believe that they would appreciate you trying to start a war with a much larger sovereign entity. Drop those gravity wells, and allow the civilians to escape, and you need not worry about your precious ship. Though, I'd hate to see Tyler kill his new bitch, so soon."

A warning light, as the aft shields weaken, and Delede speaks..."Shunt more power into the shields, Engineering. We can spare it....we're still faster than them, if they're stock." A reference to the Ravager, likely, as it's the only other Strike. Still, they take hull damage from the Predator's heavy turbolasers, punching through the first few meters of enhanced plating. A flicker, and the shields come back on, though weakened. "Roll the bloody ship. Show our weakened shields to the Interdictor, and Strike. Predator can hit the fresher side."

"I hear you, Audacity. I'll have to talk to my tactical officer about not pointing that out. Though, might I suggest that those torpedoes on your x-wings would be rather more useful against the big ships..." A chuckle, and Gren cuts the comm, turning toward the weapons station. "Guns, you heard the man. Stop worrying about giving the enemy ideas, and aim for their weak points." A shudder, and the ship rolls slightly, as new firing solutions are acted upon, the heavy turbolasers reaching out for those connecting sections on the Ravager, while those facing the Embrace continue to wail on the smaller vessel. This time, it's everything that the CSAV Authority can spare, allowing the Z-100's to continue to harass the Interdictor....

The Sentinel is hit by Tyler's torpedoes, taking having damage, and turning away from the fight at large, at best speed, trying to get away. "Tax Squadron, Frugal....don't bloody let them get you separated. Stay together. And, fire in pairs on individual targets."

Once the Emendation's out from behind the Authority, Lt. Virda starts barking orders to the helm as well as fire control, her voice rising to a near scream as she gives her orders to the crew. "I want the ship guarding the Embrace kept busy! I want you to try and take out its comms as well as its power. Keep the fire off of our fighters." As the ship Delede's on gets hit the concussion causes Twila's ship to shift slightly, a slight rocking that has her grabbing for something pre-emptively. Best to keep on one's feet at times like this. "Fighters, I want you moving fast and trying to hit hard. Target essential systems." Snarling, she turns and goes to look at a screen, frowning at the information. "Colonel, are you alright? You better keep yourself in one piece, damnit."

"Ghost Leader, Falcon Leader this is Audacity Actual.", Rasi says, patched through to the Chylene, thankfully, not until her cursing is done with, he always was somewhat of a proper fellow. "I'll detail the Lightbringer to provide covering fire for you, especially from those oncoming Skiprays as you make the transfer and for some time, but I need the bulk of her guns to take out the Interdictor. Before the Predator can get close " And at last the comm is cut, the Commander keeping a slight chuckle out of his tone at Ridge's introduction. The conversation is terminated just in time for him to witness the majority of the guns from the Lightbringer, a small but very tough ship in his opinion, fire an opening salvo at the Interdictor. "Mister Vichten, lower your interdiction field, and your vessel will be left unharmed. I will not, however, tolerate any interference in the running of my forces, and I will not permit your actions to result in needless loss of life, especially from the trapped civilians your friends over there are taking potshots at. Get out of my way." The transmission cut, an order is sent to whoever is in charge of such things to record the Imperials' actions, the battle, and in particular capture their attacks against civilian vessels. Of course, except when possible for, the Audacity remains strictly targeted against the Ravager. The broadside from her for the most part avoided because of its speed and manoeuvrability, but what strikes do manage to hit are enough to send the shields' into the red. "Keep us away from the Ravager and the Predator, focus all fire on is weak points. As soon as it begins to retreat, if it does, let the Authority know that it can begin switching its fire to the Embrace."

Ghost Leader simply rolls her eyes within her cockpit at Falcon Leader's commentary. "Some of us shoot more and speak less," she replies in a calm tone, not letting the other squadron leader rile her. Knowing the quality newness of Ridge's personnel, she recognizes it as a tactic to encourage his people. A little bit of friendly competition is all well and dandy in Kyrin Sh'vani's world view. As Alex escapes her lasers, the Chyleni frowns. "That hostile X-Wing just got on my last nerve," she says as she realizes that the Imperials are targeting civilians... as usual. "Ghosts, we are going to engage those (censored word x 3) directly and teach them why it is not a good idea to target civilian ships." She directs her squadron's elements toward Tyler and his cronies, deciding it's now time to see about this rogue X-Wing that has been bothering the new Republic. "Ghoul Flight, you are on the capital ships. Give Archiles a hand or paw as the case may be. Sandman, you are with me. Let us give this one the same treatment we gave Kreldin's impostor over Coruscant."

The view from Kesander's cockpit is pretty breathtaking. X-Wings, A-Wings and TIEs streak by, diving, climbing, banking - all firing hot death and hoping to destroy their enemies. Some of those green daggers of destruction bracket Ghost 7, flashing his rear deflectors. Instantly, Sandman transmits to his wingman, "Lance, see if you can pick one of those bastards up - the one trying to kill me would be great. Going evasive." At this, the Corellian's X-Wing pulls sharply "up", going perpendicular to the ecliptic plane of the star system. As his fighter begins to invert, the Corellian rolls and pushes his stick down and banks hard coming up on the "6" of one of the ships that until a few seconds ago was attempting to blow him to scrap metal, ionized gas, and carbonized protein goo. Squeezing his weapons trigger once more, the Lieutenant laces burning red laser fire into the Imperial fighter ship, blowing large chunks of its port wing off and sending it spinning off into the void in an uncontrolled flat spin. "Smokey," sends the X-Wing driver coolly to his Astromech over his ship-board comms. "Give me another 10 percent boost on the rear deflectors. Squeeze it from life support if you have to, but just not weapons or shields." With an enthusiastic bleep-tweedle-booaawooop, the droid complies. With Kyrin's order to form up on her, the pilot of Ghost 7 once again banks hard and throttles forward on an intercept vector towards Ghost Leader. Hitting his comlink once more Kesander sends on the tactical channel "Lance break contact here as soon as you can and follow me and Phoenix. We've got priority targets to address. Sandman, out."

Neatly evading the perforation attempt from Ghost Leader, Dante is in the perfect position to see the incoming reinforcements to the theatre. "Is that.. Falcon Squadron?" Mac asks Dante in one of those oh-so-mild tone of voices he uses when being nonchalant about being surprised. "Will wonders never cease," he continues before shaking his head, "Dante, we've two choices. Continue bombing run Or engage the incoming Falcons."

Ignoring the soap-box commentary that's suds up the com channels, Dante is nodding her head slightly as she surveys the options. "Sigma-2 it looks like we have some additional dance partners this time around. We'll hold the door open for you," she pauses and her tone of voice alters subtly to convey the amusement, "you deliver the package as planned." With that she selects one of the targeting solutions offered from the bomber's computer and fires on the inbound X-wings as soon as they're within range.

"Copy that, Sandman." calls Lance over the com, and without another word, he banks his ship right. Almost immediately, Ghost Six comes up short, nearly stalling the engines, but stopping fairly proficiently in the air, allowing the yet remaining TIE to go hurtling beyond him. "Gotcha..." comments the young pilot as he throttles into gear anew, coming up hard on the tail of the other, sending out a quadraped of deadly fire, breaking against the shields, ere finally puncturing. Another victim is sent spinning out of control, and with a quick glance about, Lance turns his X-Wing to begin converging on the now-distant Ghost Squadron.

A volley of blaster fire obliterates an attacking TIE as the Corporate Venture nears the Authority. With Captain Allure busy at the controls, Xar'on grunts into the comms, "Authority, this is Corporate Venture. Be advised that we're in yer firing range, so watch what yer bangin' away at. And tell that CDU stim-junkie pilot he can take his threats and cram them..." a flood of obscenities involving painful placement of objects in inappropriate orifices is lost in the static. The hum of the Venture's engines is somewhat soothing to the ageing captain. The helm, responding gingerly to her every command, makes her feel like home. Vi takes a lasting glance around as the doc's voice startles her, drawing her out of the 'zone'. In that brief moment a lazor cannon, out of nowhere had lock onto her vessel. "Yikes!" Violet grabs the yolk to manoeuvre the ship out of harms way, though too late.

The four skiprays, led by the Boomstick, a wildly painted and completely refitted model, scream through the oncoming fighters at full throttle, matching even the A-wings in speed. "So, it is civilian targets that are keeping you here?" Axel says over the comms. "Then we'll make sure they aren't of a concern." With that said he communicates via tight-beam transmission to the other three skiprays following in formation behind him and the bridge of the Embrace. "Embrace, start sending targeting computations for our missiles. Target any of the non-combatant civilian craft in the sector. Alright guys, on my mark, let loose a full volley. Your droids should be inputting the missile trajectories at this moment. Attack formation Delta Three."

The three skiprays behind the Boomstick spread out. The weapon systems rotate around the ship and the capital scaled missile pods come alive. "FIRE!" Axel screams over the comms, following it with laughter. All four of the skiprays begin launching missile after missile. Figuring the gunnery crew of the Embrace had little to do other than damage control, they should have no problem coordinating and targeting the civilian craft in the system.

The Purple Haze, likewise begins attacking civilian targets while the two modified Headhunter II's continue their assault on specific Hutt vessels. The Embrace however is working overtime. The gravity well generators have lost a considerable amount of power, one of them already completely out. The remaining three are still functional, but the range of the generated gravitational field has been cut to a little more than half of it's maximum capacity. The shields of the Embrace barely holding in some locations and completely failed in others. It would not be long before it was forced to retreat while all non-bridge crew were manning damage control stations.

Amidst the raging battle, two starfighter-class vessels burst into view, skimming the atmosphere of the Smuggler's Moon. The X-Wing is piloted, surprisingly, with s-foils CLOSED to achieve maximum speed, while the Skipray blastboat on her wing leads the way. The Vigilance and Jedi One break away from the atmosphere and begin heading directly toward the NRCV Audacity.

The Sith fleet was far from invincible as damage was slowly accumulating on a few ships including the Frigates battling the near exterminated Hutt fleet. The only ship in the fleet not showing any damage for its trouble was the most dangerous the I2SD Predator, and it was about to show the New Republic and CSA why that was foolish.

Malign and his Squadron of fighters continue their fight with the CSA squadrons, though a tingle comes into his senses, "Dareus, launch support fighters." The Sith ducks some fire from one of the CSA fighters only to get lanced by another, "Squadron One, their organizing. Divide and conquer, execute manoeuvre sixty-four." The group of fighters scatters off in all directions moving in a large figure eight drawing fighters with them, their intersecting paths' giving each group a clear shot at one another's pursuers. The fight was going to have to shift gears though as his hazel eyes choose a target, the Audacity. He checks his ammunition and nods choosing to fire his torpedoes directly at the Bridge and its deflectors there to give them a good scare. He levels his yoke and fires off a pair directly at the Corvette rolling away from its turbolasers and point defenses flying past the vessel rapidly and executing a tight curve to hide behind its engine wash in a blind spot. His modified shielding takes some light damage from the radiation leaking from the massive ion drives on the rear of the Audacity.

Squadron One was taking light damage but holding its own, their ships were not stock, Malign, wouldn't ask any of his comrades to fight in stock vessels. These hardened warriors flew ships that could easily out pace stock Republic weaponry and they do. Accelerating and breaking off from the battle as a target appears near the moon, a Hutt's Yacht, Grubba had made it to orbit after all, his vessel lumbering and already smoking from an explosion on the moon, "Take it out!" Tyler exclaims exposing himself as he breaks out of his hiding place into the path of some laser fire from his old Squadron, Ghost. His squadron was no where in sight to cover him having broke off from the main fight to kill Grubba.

The Moon below suddenly flickers with energy and it only would take anyone a few moments to realize its planetary energy shield was activated, "The Moon is secure. Shields are up. We're in control, focus on destroying the enemy." Malign's orders were now very clear, no mercy. His focus turns to his old squadron, which he opens a channel to, "Ghost Squadron, Fossil here, hope you enjoy drinking vacuum, because attacking me? You've just invited yourself to get a taste of it." With that the Ship rolls forward into the attack.

Keline takes the offer from the Predator as it begins to turn, weapons still blazing as it manoeuvrer, before taking up an escort position on the underside of the Start Destroyer's port hull. Inside the crew is still relatively calm, keeping about their duties, and so is it's captain despite some white knuckleitis. She turns to look at the weapons officer. "Do what you have to, but keep the guns going and the shields up. You can route power from unnecessary systems if you have to. Helmsman, keep us on this course and heading..we need to give the weakened shields a chance to recover. She flips on the all ship channel before speaking: "Repair teams, report to your designated stations. Report any irregularities and make what repairs are possible."

With the giant wedge of the Star Destroyer moving directly into the battle, offering itself up as a heavily armed shield, the port batteries offer no slowing down of their turbolasers, picking and choosing targets at will from the side, from starfighters to pummelling on the larger capital scale ships, the manoeuvring of the Authority brings a grin to his face, "Redirect your targets, split firepower between the starfighters, and heavier fire concentrations on that one...give them a full bout of Ion Cannons...I'm getting sick of their hanging on by a thread." He means the Authority, and the batteries definitely heard it, although the Emendation is not ignored by any means either, with the Predators Forward guns being brought to bear. Clasping his hands behind his back, Dareus turns his attention to the other side of his Destroyer, grinning widely while anything that specifically isn't military, is becoming quickly shot at from the starboard turbolasers, insystem shuttles are quick to explode and become nothing more than a flicker in the shields of the Predator. A young officer pipes up, "Incoming fighters to defend the civilians" The crew is remaining quite calm and collected, nearly the same as Dareus coldly replies, "Redirect fire and annihilate them. They're no match. Lord Malign, launching reserve squadrons now, all units converge on sector 3-6 bravo and engage the enemy." The turbolasers are quick to respond, sending volley after volley towards the rather suicidal good Samaritans while a while a whole new set of problems for their enemies quickly disembark from the fighter bays, each of the Interceptors from the squadrons bank at high speed heading with their cannons lighting up into the mess. Turning from the viewport to step along the command catwalk, he waves his hand towards a comm officer, "Open a channel on a standard frequency, the static crackles a bit before Dareus takes a deep breath and calmly speaks while walking along the bridge, "This is Captain Dareus on board the Star Destroyer Predator, the Corporate Fleet will be decimated, along with the Republic. Power down your weapons systems, lower your shields and surrender. It's the only way you'll leave here alive." He waves his hand across his throat, killing the signal before going back on the encoded fleet channel, "All batteries increase firepower until they surrender or explode, target their engine sections first, give them the fewest options possible, a few prisoners would do nicely."

"Lon, Siren," Enb'Zik had finally had a chance to get their names, albeit in a rush, as the three had boarded Vigilance at a run. His copilot Lalo had been astute enough to have kept the engines warm during the short operation that had had them on the ground. Now, they clear the atmosphere just ahead of Skywalker's X-wing, leading for good reason: "This ship's got some modifications that ought to help keep us clear of a lot of trouble on our way back. Nine-tenths of the stock fighters won't be able to keep up, but we're going to have to watch for the mercenaries and pirates. If either of you can operate a turret cannon, that would be helpful." The GAT-12j blastboat tips to port, accelerating toward the top end of an T-65's velocity before Zik keys the comm, "Luke, let me know if you need me to hang back. I'm going to get our charges to safety on board our carrier. Audacity communications, this is Ikihsa Enb'Zik. I have two VIPs en route. Request priority spot in landing queue so we can offload these guys and get back to helping, over."

A loud scream of anger echoes alarmingly through the bridge, Twila pretty much frightening the crew of the Emendation into action even if she doesn't give the order to move out. She might be the temporary CO of the ship but they know who they'd have to answer to if they failed to obey. Wheeling around, she turns a baleful glare towards the navigations officer and speaks to him lowly before leaving the bridge. Seems like the Emendation and her crew will live to fight another day, for what it is worth, but the Lt. is by no means happy with being sent home for supper, so to speak.

"Navigator, keep us away from the Predator's guns.. Tell the Lightbringer to form up below us and tell them to target the Embrace's engines, or whatever weak spot they have. But I want that ship out of commission now. GunChief, coordinate with the Authority, and put everything you have into the Embrace.", and now he gets to hoping that the Interdictor will at least give way, till, plans are already being formulated, and contingency orders being entered into his console. His order to send a power flare-up into the rear engines, to smoke out that little weasel(no offense intended) back there. That shot taken at his bridge ignored, even though it does send one of several Imperial-induced tremors through the vessel which now begins to take a bit of a pounding, still, it's nothing like what the Authority must be taken. "This is Cen, you have landing priority, get down here General, I want to get moving towards the Embrace within minutes. I want to leave as quickly as possible " And as soon as that is said, another transmission is sent out to all the NR's fighters, "This is the Audacity. Ghosts, form up on us immediately, we'll make a run against the Embrace and pour absolutely everything we have into her. Hopefully that'll serve in breaking her up. Falcons, get here too, and keep their fighters off us.", that same message having been sent to the Interdictor which now positions itself not too far below the Audacity, the two ships coordinating their fire. "Damage control, get into position, and shore up vulnerable positions. I want us ready to scram as soon as this is done, and I mean as soon as this run is done, we're taking off." As if they weren't already in place, sparks flying off one of the bridge's blown console, and someone or other having put out a fire from the one attached to it.

Odion was about to comm Sigma 3 when another comm came over. "Two, this is One, we're hit and damaged pretty good. We're setting her down on the Ravager, you're in command. Good luck." Odion nodded. "You too sir. Alright Sigma this is Two, One is hit and he's setting her down on the deck, I'm taking command. Three that's a negatory on engagement, continue the bombing run as ordered, fighters are not our responsibility." He drew back his stick to avoid a crossing blast laser fire. Turning to port he lined his ship up on another turbolaser and didn't even notice the shudder as the payload was released again. He opened up a comm to the Ravager. "Ravager this is Sigma Two, we have a heavy enemy fighter presence threatening our mission, looks to be Falcons, A-Wings. Requesting fighter assistance."

"Fossil, this is Phoenix, current Ghost Leader," Kyrin says as she lets her X-Wing evade Tyler's fire with more ease than most of her fellow X-Wing drivers can do... experience and also the simple fact that she has an innate knowledge of dogfighting and flying... having wings of her own. Non-winged people simply can't compare in those sorts of instinctive things. "I have 'drunk vacuum', as you say, due to the actions of those far better than a mere traitor such as yourself. Give my regards to Danik Kreldin in the great beyond. Ghost Leader, out." She snaps off the channel with a flick of her fingers as she puts on the breaks and throws herself forward against the straps, letting Tyler streak past her like a bantha needing the loo, and then the instant he's past her ride, she opens fire. A deadly dance much like combat duels on her homeworld, and with equal intention of a soft and gentle murder.

The Venture shakes violently as it is grazed by enemy fire. "Not on my watch you don't!" Violet shouts back at the pilot of the other vessel, as if he could hear her, like a bad space rage (like road rage) episode. Violet yanks on the yolk, steering the Venture abruptly around towards the perpetrator. Meanwhile, Violet's other hand meaningfully presses an intricate combination of buttons. By the time she slings the starship around, she has charged all four laser cannons, recalibrating them for max intensity, and aligning them to fire a steady stream of laser fire into the same spot on the target. As soon as she locks on the target, Violet pumps a steady, unrelenting stream of firepower into the ship. She finally eases up as she sees the enemy's ship explode into a huge mushroom cloud of dust particles. "Xar, what is our status?" She barks hoarsely over the loud humming of the engines, "Damn, they must have grazed the relay assembly...I need contact with the Authority!" Xar'on hammers at the console with a fist and growls, "I lost contact with the Authority, dammit. Managed to pick somethin' up from the Colonel, though. Looks like we're buggin' out."

"I'm a bit busy here, Two," Dante calls out via the com system to his instructions, "I'll be there in a moment," she adds. Sparing a brief glance towards Squadron 1 and the support fighters being launched from the Predator, Dante and Mac are joined by Sigma's 5 and 6 as they face the inbound falcons and the remaining Ghosts. Cueing The other Sigma's in the squadron open fire as well, taking shots carefully so as to not waste weapons fire on misses or near-hits. As the saying goes, close only counts in thermal detonators and orbital bombardments.

With Ghost Leader within visual distance, Ghost 7's pilot suddenly has a whole new set of things to worry about. Specifically, a lot of TIE Interceptors. With numerous targets appearing in his heads up display, Kesander simply picks one that appears to be angling towards Phoenix's ship and banks slightly to put his ship on a head-on intercept course. Stock though his X-Wing may be, the Corellian's skills certain are anything but. In fact, he is among the elite of StarOp's cadre of warriors. As sizzling green needles of hell begin to bracket his craft once more, Sandman grins in a frightening, feral manner and barrel rolls the X-Wing, depressing his trigger all the while. The red lances of laser fury catch the marked TIE pretty much dead on, transforming it into an incandescent cloud of gas and sparkling metal shards. However, Sandman's own craft is not unscathed. Green death hammers his shields, nearly dropping them. "Karking hell," the blond man growls, even as the order to form up on Audacity comes across his tactical comms. "Ghost 7, I'm on my way. Spectre Flight that means you too. Disengage and form on Audacity." Thumbing his shipboard comms to speak to his Astromech once more, the Lieutenant says, "Do your magic Smokey. Need speed and shields. Isolate the damage as much as you can." And with this, the X-Wing banks away from the TIEs and towards the Republic Corvette.

"Roger that, Audacity, formi-" Ridge pauses in his A-wing as some blaster fire comes in at a new angle. Checking his scanners he identifies the bombers closing in and grins. "Hold that, Audacity. We'll be completely with you in a moment. Three Flight, form on Ghost- Sh'vani is your leader 'til I get back." Turning his fighter abruptly to face the assault dead on, an insane smile pours over the pilot's face. Boosting his A-wing forward, he commands the remaining flights to join him. "Two Flight, show those bombers what it feels like to get your targeting mechs all fuzzed up, then attack from below. Falcons Three and Four, attack from starboard after Two Flight fires the jammers." With that he begins to angle slightly left, and an instant later the targeting jammers fire from Falcons Four through Eight. With a raucous laugh, the Falcon CO shouts through his comm, "Three and Four, go starboard and start shootin'!" Trusting Falcon Two to follow his lead, Ridge goes left and holds his trigger down, letting his laser fire rip through as many of the bombers as possible. He lets out a crow as one of them goes down after the first pass. "Two Flight, start shootin'! We gonna show 'em how a Falcon fights!" Turning his fighter quickly, he aims the nose back around to look for any remaining bombers, his fingers ready to pull on the trigger if he sees any.

"Boomstick," the comms key up from the Embrace. "We've suffered heavy damage to our primary and secondary power cores. We can't hold up the gravity wells. We're sorry Captain." It was a choice, life support and engines or gravity well generators. The Commander of the Embrace made the call and chose to live to fight another day. "We're forced to retreat. Predator, it has been a pleasure. Embrace out." The gravity well generators go completely offline, once again allowing movement into the system. Immediately, the Embrace kicks on it's ion drives and starts to pull away as best it can. Tertiary power supply limited hyperspace speed to three times what the ship was currently rated with it's highly modified motivator system, but it should be able to pull away, given any luck that is. Axel gives a quick tilt of his craft, as if saluting the Embrace. "Acknowledged Embrace. You have not failed though. Once again, as it was at Bothawui, you put up a hell of a fight. Rendezvous point Echo. See you in a few days." The brightly painted skipray cuts off it's pursuit of the remaining civilian craft. "New Republic, Corporate Sector, my next targets are in your systems. Ord Mantell and Etti IV both have nice little targets that I am going to hit. Take this as a warning. You meddled in my affairs, now I shall kill as many civilians as I can on your own planets." He then makes a call out to the other skipray pilots. "Converge on me, Delta formation. We're going to try and take an A-Wing. Ion cannon fire only. I want a trophy out of this, over." With that said, the four skiprays move into a diamond formation with the rear ship sitting a bit lower than the Boomstick which is in lead. The scream towards Falcon squadron, matching the smaller ships in speed, though not in maneuverability. The weapons array on each of the skiprays rotate around.

The Purple Haze breaks off of it's non-hutt targets and maneuvers about, cutting a line straight for the Embrace, trying to put itself between it and any enemy cappies shooting at it. The Haze was heavily armored, almost as much as an Imperial class Star Destroyer, and quite fast. At maximum speed though, it's shields were weakened due to a power draw, and the normally active lights that were all over the craft were currently dimmed way down instead of flashing extremely bright pulses. Following along behind the Haze were the two Z-95A Headhunter II's, the Red Comet and the Chimaera. The two space superiority fighters were running a defensive screen, targeting any fighter that tried popping a shot at the Haze. Meanwhile, the Embrace was doing everything it could to get a clear shot for hyperspace, it's job in system prematurely over.

Cut off from the rest of his squadron, Ghost Six is left in a vulnerable position. Dipping and dodging, Lance takes himself on a veritable roller coaster ride as he dodges weapons fire from all angles. Yet, it is as he banks upwards from one assault that Alex's volley soars in. Cursing aloud, his voice startled, and eyes widening, he flings his X-Wing into a roll right, blasters catching his shields yet glancing off. With a curse, a frown, and breath coming in rapid succession, he swallows, forcing himself to concentrate, if not calm, and soon aims Ghost Six towards Sigma Two, sending continuing forward in a slight off-axis roll. Squeezing down on the trigger, he sends out a spread of fire towards the oncoming bomber.

Down on the surface of Nar Shaddaa, Enb'Zik had been able to sense an inkling of how brutally the starship battle was being waged. He'd even tasted it, briefly, on his way down at the fight'svery beginning. Without doubt, this is some of the worst fighting he's seen since Sullust, if on a smaller scale. The gouts of laser fire being passed back and forth among ships, combined with all the fighters and the sheer amount of debris left in the wake of this fight makes the battle into a wicked obstacle course. Trusting others to handle the majority of the ship's defense, Enb'Zik tunes out their chatter and allows himself to relax. He reaches out in the Force, remembering Luke's myriad lessons on instinct and the Moment. "HEY!" While Zik works on flying, the co-pilot Lalo growls back at Lon and Siren both, "I can't run these weapons myself. I don't care if the only part of that turret you know how to work is the farkin' TRIGGER! LAY DOWN SOME FIRE, or we MIGHT NOT make it back to the Audacity! Y'ain't gotta HIT nothin'! Just keep the bad guys from gettin' too close!" The good news, if there is any, is that the Republic Marauder Corvette isn't terribly far the approaching GAT-12. He nods to himself at Skywalker's instructions to make all speed, his hand already on the throttle. "Confirmed, Luke. And Audacity confirmed, also," Enb'Zik replies to the other ship's transmission. His voice is clear, but it carries a mildly distant quality, as if his focus is divided. "We're moving into position now. Give us forty seconds to land. If you can scramble two gunners to exchange as soon as I land, Lalo and I will relaunch and cover your exit." In the background as Zik speaks, someone can be overheard yelling a threat to someone else about not throwing up in the cockpit. The next half-minute plus passes in a flurry of evasive flying, followed by Enb'Zik's second rushed landing procedure of the day. Fortunately, this one is actually a little easier than the first time. Ikihsa flips the switch to rotate the Skipray's ion cannon pylons into landing configuration and passes hastily into the relative safety of Audacity's main bay.

Malign breaks off from the New Republic ships flying almost among his old squadron scanning them and looking down at his tactical ducking and dodging heavy fire, "Scimitars, concentrate all your fire on the Lightbringer. Squadron one, once the Hutt is dead return to the Predator, drinks on me." The Sith didn't see this lasting much longer, the Hutt's fleet was little more than debris and dust, the CSA apart from one valiant ship was preparing to pull back out. The only ship that had seen better days was the Ravager and Embrace which had taken the worst of the pounding. The Ravager pulls back for cover behind the Predator to standby to retrieve its surviving fighters. The I2SD was an excellent shield for any limping vessel.

“Dareus regroup, and hold position. We're taking a defensive posture and should push the Republic out of the system." He says coolly jerking his yoke down in a spin avoiding cannon fire from enemy fighters. He leans forward and flips his counter measures, which fired off a vent of vapors capable of dispersing cannon fire, which scatters Kyrin's shots, "Nice try Phoenix, but you're not good enough to mess with the Damion's." After all he was just one of two Damion's to command Ghost, Johanna was also one of its old Commanders.

Malign executes a corkscrew and a roll to move in behind Ghost Leader and lines the vessel up for a pair of Proton torpedoes, "Good day, Phoenix." He says as the orbs race rapidly toward his target. He then jukes away from other fire getting cooked lightly by another fighter, "Nate, see what you can do, that might've nicked our left stabilizer, no worries though I can hold." He mutters as a few sparks fly from behind his chair, but the Force was with this Sith and he instinctively pulls away and rolls toward the cover fire of reinforcement fighters and anti-starfighter fire from the Predator.

Another angle of fire, his senses tingle as he turns to see another X-wing, "Blast." He mutters jerking down and breaking away narrowly away from Luke's fire, too close. Malign's X-wing was a high-speed tank in zero-g making speeds that an A-wing could and armored like a scimitar, the Sith had taken very careful steps to protect himself and his interest. He pulls off Ghost One, unconcerned if he had finished her off or not and turns his attention to Skywalker. He lines up a shot on instinct alone and fires it off before banking away and moving toward the Predator once he hears that the Embrace was pulling out to bait the Jedi Master into dueling a Sith Lord and an I2SD.

"Captain, they're making a run for the Embrace...she won't take much more." He doesn't waste any time before heading back towards the viewports, "All batteries to full power. I want every Ion Cannon and Turbolaser on that damn ship right now." His voice never turns to yelling, it just remains a calm and authoritative tone, his eyes never leaving the field of battle for the time being, taking a deep breath while the gravity wells go down, the Authority probably getting ready to jump; shaking his head and quickly jumping on the comlink, "All units re-converge on any stragglers, no one is to follow. We still have work to do here, concentrate all fire on those moving into position to jump, let's try to keep a few behind for some hospitality." He clears his throat as a droid brings him a cup of caf, ironic that. Hard battle outside and he's relaxing like he were on vacation, taking a quick sip. "Predator group, transmit damage reports and begin emergency repairs immediately. Lord Malign, we're still in top shape; but will hold position here, hangar bays are cleared; and units that are damaged, take up position behind us; we got you covered." With the forward momentum stopping now, the turbolasers slow down, firing at those stragglers within range; while Dareus stands at his window, watching a certain Pair of X-Wings fly with amazing precision.

The Venture shakes sadistically again. Violet shakes her head as she sees the other CSA ships just into hyperspace, heading for an undisclosed location. "NO!" Vi glances across the cockpit at the doc, "Don't let the Authority out range, we can't make it far on our own." Xar'on bellows out in reply, "The comlink is still down" Violet pounded on the thrusters, begging them not to relinquish as she presses them at 200 percent overdrive; her last attempt to catch up to the Authority. Violet's eyes slit and mumbles under her breath, "Omen this!" She releases two sharp laser blasts into the side of the Authority. Violet's comlink beeped for the first time. The noise almost startled her, though it took a few minutes before Violet realized what and where it was coming from. "Authority here. Your presence has been noted Captain Allure! Over and out!" Vi releases a deep sigh of relief glad that she was able to skip past another frightful capture by a mere hair.

As sensors report that the Embrace's gravity wells drop, Gren looks around the Bridge, his face breaking into a smile. "Helm. Keep those engines pumping, and get us clear of the engagement. Once we've collected the last of our fighters, get us out of here." A quiet sigh fills the room, as the bridge relaxes, even as damage teams work in their midst.

The rest of the Corporate Sector Fleet has entered hyperspace, with the Emendation mostly unharmed, and the Sentinel leaking plasma. The Authority's shields are dropping, as it's last fighters land, though it's turbolasers keep pumping up until the last, with it's anti-starfighter batteries turning a last TIE into that much shrapnel. "Vichten. Bring it on. If you attack my space, you pay in blood." A flick of the communications, to the New Republic channel, and Delede speaks..."Audacity, it was good to fight with you. And, thank Skywalker for us. Our people are safe, and we couldn't have done it, without working together." A pause, and a shake of his head, as he can't help but add a hesitant, and flippant.."May the Force be with you...Authority out." A pleased glance around his Bridge, and the damaged Strike Cruiser enters hyperspace.

"Over and out, gunners will be awaiting for you at the hangar bay, as well as someone from medical in case they're wounded. But you're not going anywhere General, I'm getting out of here soon, and I don't want to chase after you, with all due respect. Audacity over and out.", oh dear mother of the Maker, did he just order around a General...he's so going to get it. Only if he makes it out of this of course, and he leans forward in his seat, which he should really request be removed, it just doesn't fit for him to sit down at this time. "Target everything we have for one last salvo against the Embrace, I want to make sure that it is hurt after this.", he is only just a little bit bloody, at least from the standards of some other New Republic officers. "Afterwards, tell the Lightbringer to help our fighters, I want their way back to us cleared. Maneuver us into a position that we can get out of the system quickly." Finally, his last order for the time being, though not his final transmission, "Ghost and Falcon Squadrons, the Lightbringer will provide cover for you, get back to your ships immediately, we're getting out of here quickly." "This is the NRCV Audacity, civilian crafts in the system, we will provide cover for you as long as possible, but the gravity well is done, get out of here now, you don't want to be the guests to our Imperial hosts anymore now.", the message broadcast to as many of the civilian ships as possible.

A few tell-tale rattles speak to Kesander Beysarus of significant damage to Ghost 7, enough to convince the Corellian to confer with his Astromech. "Smokey will she hold together? We've got one more job and the we can get back aboard Audacity." The droid bleep-boop-tweet-braaaps. Which is essentially to say "Yeah, things are stable but don't get too crazy with this fighter - it's hurting." Switching his weapons selector to proton torpedoes, the Lieutenant waits a scant second for his targeting computer to get a firing solution on Embrace some several kilometers distant. As soon as he gets the tone that tells him he's got a lock, the X-Wing driver ripple-fires a pair of warheads. "Spectre Flight this is Sandman. Shoot your ordnance and then back to the barn. Damaged ships land first. Sandman out." Although despite this order to those in his flight, the Corellian and his wounded ship will be among the last of Ghost Squadron to reach safe haven in Audacity's hangar.

Two torpedoes. Damion fired two torpedoes at her. Kyrin smiles grimly as she twists her X-Wing up and out of the main part of the battle, keeping her X-Wing on a vector along with Tyler's... but in a sneaky sort of fashion. Within Ghost One, the pilot's about to do something that has her astromech screaming electronic bloody murder. More civilized droids would simply melt at this one's invective. "Shut up or eject yourself. I know what I am doing," the Chyleni pilot orders curtly as she checks the timing. Yes. With a sudden twisting of her controls, her X-Wing kills forward inertia and then promptly flops end for end, facing the torpedoes inbound, all four lasers firing simultaneously. It's a daring move, but it works as Ghost Leader stares death in the face and doesn't flinch. The upper two shots tear through the two torps and render them inert... the other two shots... well, they could be insurance. Or they could be return fire. Aimed at Tyler. A nice silent and deadly present for the Sith Lord that Luke also fired upon. "My compliments, Jedi One," Kyrin says calmly within her cockpit as she switches the quads to paired firing, then checks to see what else is going on around her. "Sandman, report." She's still keeping an eye on the bigger picture, but she adds a few more kills to her tally as she kicks her ride back up to attack speed once more and rejoins the fray.

"Ghost Leader, this is Ghost 7," comes the reply to Phoenix's command. "Spectre's in once piece although everyone's got some battle damage. My ride's taken a beating but she's holding together," says Kesander, trying to sound his usual cocky and confident self. "My folks are launching their torpedoes on Embrace now per Audacity Actual's order. Everyone's got landing priority and approach vectors from Krayt and is headed back to the barn once they've taken their shots."

The Embrace takes yet another beating. The last of it's shields were gone, it's hull was badly scarred and the secondary power core erupts into a sparking mess. One of the gravity well shields blows to pieces, but it somehow manages to limp it's way into the safety of hyperspace. It's destination unknown, but tracked trajectory patterns would seem to point towards Caspar.

With the Embrace gone finally, though heavily damaged, the Purple Haze comes to starboard brings it's chrome plated double-turbolaser batteries to bear on the republic starfighters. A heavy barrage of green laser fire erupts from the barrels in an attempt to disperse the enemy formations.

The four skiprays, led by Axel Vichten suddenly peel away from their chase of the republic fighters and shoot in the direction of Jedi One. "Lord Malign," Axel says over comms. "You said once before you would be proud to have me as a wingman. I think now might be that time. Together, not even a Jedi such as Skywalker could match our might." Well, Axel was a good pilot, but without the Force guiding his hands, there was little match he could prove against Luke. He had sparred with Jedi One on more than one occasion when he was the flight instructor aboard the Crusader. This time though, Axel was not alone. He had three more modified skiprays flying cover and he had Tyler in his X-wing. What could go wrong? Right?

"Roll to port" Dante calls out in warning to her co-pilot as she rolls the bomber in a wicked spin that evades the majority of the incoming fire. The shields of the Scimitar bomber take a glancing hit, her display screens illuminated for a moment before a systems check reads all clear. Sigma's 5 and 6 are taking incoming fire from Falcon and returning it as well, "All right, fall back to the Predator," Dante calls out via the ship to ship channels and begins a slow but steady advance in the other direction.

Lance grins as Sigma Three banks aside, though another curse leaves his lips as the ship avoids the majority of the fire. Growling, Ghost Six does not slow, instead headed for the Embrace. On his approach, tucking and rolling as he avoids more fire, Lance calls over the comm, "Fossil, if you're still out there, I'm gunning for you next time." A chuckle escapes his lips as he comes within range, and lets loose his package, two torpedoes soaring in on their mark: the Embrace. With a grunt of satisfaction, Ghost Six banks about, surveying the scene, before turning back towards the Audacity, laying down cover fire for his allies, starting with the closest, most damaged ships.

Luke Skywalker remains utterly silent, pivoting Jedi One away from Damion's Fury and twisting about to break off the duel. He won't be baited today... his work here is nearly finished. He glances over his shoulder to see Kyrin turning about to begin handling the torpedoes, and a wry smirk crosses his silent face. He closes his eyes, losing himself in the Force, and focuses on the torpedoes as they race toward Ghost One.

He lifts his hands from the controls, and grasps at the air before him. The Force curls about the torpedoes, and with a gentle pull of his hands, Luke's mastery of the Force begins to slow the torpedoes down, giving Kyrin the extra boost of time she needs to pull off her radical stunt.

Then, Luke opens his eyes with a gasp as the Force warns him of impending danger, and he jerks Jedi One away from Vichten's incoming fire before pulling about and heading to form up on the NRCV Audacity. He jinks and jerks about as Jedi One evades each and every shot that comes his way, but he won't turn about and engage. He won't be baited by Axel or Tyler... for the Jedi way is never aggressive.

Luke forms up along with the rest of the New Republic forces, and zaps into hyperspace along with his comrades. It will be a long trip... he will thoroughly enjoy the solitude.

Well, if he's not going to clear Vigilance to relaunch, why is Audacity's leading officer clearing the extra gunners? The denial of launch permission register's in Enb'Zik's mind, and he looks to the Force for guidance. Luke is still out there. He NEEDS to go back up, doesn't he? The Force offers no clear direction that Enb'Zik is able to divine. With a sigh, then, the Sullustan nods and slumps back into the leather captain's chair of his own vessel. He's exhausted. The day has seen two intense but short battles, two equally intense landings, an unlikely rescue, a revelation of Force power and control the Sullustan never imagined, and the stretching of his own abilities beyond what should have been possible. In short, his mind and body are ready for a chance to recuperate. "Copy that, Audacity," he states into the comm, "Cancel gunners, then. We're going into cooldown. May the Force be with you. Vigilance, signing off." Zik waits several seconds, then reaches over and keys off the link. He turns his chair around to regard his two passengers, only to see that they've already disembarked. He nods as if accepting that, doing so with a shrug, and glances at his co-pilot, "Nice job, Lalo. Ale's on me when we get back to Ord."

"Another time, Axel." Malign says coolly, "The winds of destiny have advised me it is time to return to the Predator to plan our next move." The spirits of the Sith were always hovering over Tyler Damion, he walked one foot in the past, and with it came power and techniques or at least some warning of things to come. He turns his X-wing back to the Predator and prepares his landing cycle disappearing into the vessel. Inside he steps out of the X-wing removing his helmet and pitching it down the tarmac into a mouse droid. The Sith reaches into his pocket and pulls out a smoke and lights it when the entire hangar grows cold and something whispers into his ear. He knew who it was, "Show yourself." There was a cold laughter as a one armed black robed spirit appeared before him and simply said the words, "Cochran." Malign took a long drag on his smoke before realizing the cool air killed its fire and sit useless in his mouth, "I know, but first I must prepare." He says darkly and marches toward the turbolift grabbing a comlink, "Dareus, once the New Republic ships have left the system, organize the fleet and set your course for the Bothan Federation." Those systems were close enough for now, he wasn't prepared to walk on dead worlds yet.

The four skiprays change course as well, aiming for the hangar bay of the Haze. It would be a long night for Axel. He had a ton of damage reports to go over and he had to allocate the funds for the repairs. It wasn't likely the Empire would foot the bill, and doubtful they would provide any replacement for the blown out gravity well generator or parts to repair the other three that weren't completely destroyed.

As the four ships come in for landing, Axel opens comms one last time. "Sith one, Corporate Sector and NR, zero." He smiled a bit and softly settled the ship into it's landing cradle. This was just the beginning of the alliance he had made with the Sith. There was still a good bit left to do in the galaxy and much more work ahead.

Like a good CO, Kyrin ensures all of her surviving pilots are aboard the Audacity before guiding her own ship, somehow relatively unscathed, back to their ride home. "Krayt, all Ghost assets back in the barn. Well done, all. Ghost Leader out." And then her mind turns toward checking poor Lance's willingness to taunt the bad guys who could kill him with a smile... or worse, offhandedly as if he was nothing more than a bug. One gets to rack up several more kills before mouthing off like that. And then as the Chyleni clambers out of her ship tiredly to go file reports and check on her people, her mind drifts back to home, and she smiles wistfully. At least they get to go back soon.

Probably because said-officer changed thoughts in mid-sentence...still, let's not pay much attention to that. All their fighters back, and the Imperials not putting much of a pursuit, Rasi scans what remains of the battle, keeping away from those parts of the bridge that are on fire, of which there are a quite a few. The Audacity having taken quite the pounding, surprisingly enough, the Lightbringer itself is in much better condition, though that is not saying much. "Wait until everyone is aboard, send a last message to whoever is left in the civilians to get out while they still can, and then take us out of here." And while his orders are taken, the man commits to memory the nightmarish remains of the battle, he'll need to remember this next time he's in a fight. "Jump.", he says at last when they are ready to do so.